In April, President Biden asked the Department of Education to investigate his authority to cancel student loan debt. Since then, we’ve heard nothing. After months of delays -- even after a direct ask from members of his own party led by Representative Omar and other progressives -- still silence. So we at the Debt Collective did it for him: we filed a FOIA and learned that this Department of Education memo does indeed exist, has existed since April, and that the White House has seen the memo as early as April (!!). While redacted in its entirety, the existence of the memo and confirmation that the White House has seen it exposes the delay tactic in delivering on Biden’s campaign promise of student debt cancelation.

Let’s also just be honest: it’s ridiculous we’ve been waiting for months for a memo to confirm something we already know. After all, Obama, Trump and Biden have all used this SAME authority to cancel some debt and pause payments. This administration is still stalling, using every opportunity they can to put off broad cancellation. With the final student debt moratorium set to expire in January, Biden’s refusal to uphold even his meager campaign promise is nothing short of cruelty.

With Congress unable to pass any legislation to help our communities, canceling student debt is a simple action that Biden can take with Executive Authority that would transform our lives and our community. Join us to demand he release the memo AND cancel the debt.