Biden Admin Loosened Restrictions on Student Loan Program After Union Lobbying
- May 12, 2025
Tyler O’Neil, Daily Signal
The Department of Education under President Joe Biden loosened requirements for a student loan program specifically for public servants and nonprofit employees a few months after unions that stood to benefit from the change sent a letter to then-Education Secretary Miguel Cardona.
The watchdog Protect the Public’s Trust, which obtained the letter via a Freedom of Information Act request, faulted the unions for self-dealing when they demanded the Biden administration cancel the student loan debt of all public sector and nonprofit workers who completed 10 or more years of service, leaving taxpayers to pay off the balances. The revelation comes as the Department of Education under President Donald Trump is revising the program to root out alleged abuses.
The unions defended their move as keeping in line with the goal of the legislation that created the loan program. Either way, the letter arguably demonstrates unions’ large degree of influence in the Biden administration.
“These unions were lobbying for a direct financial benefit for their members at the expense of the American public,” Michael Chamberlain, director of Protect the Public’s Trust, told The Daily Signal in a statement Monday.
“By adopting the position the unions advocated for in this letter and loosening the restrictions on the PSLF [Public Service Loan Forgiveness program], which it appears they eventually did, the Biden administration’s Department of Education transferred the loan balances of millions of members of these unions to taxpayers,” he added. “This was an utterly self-serving request couched in the language of altruism and fairness.”