Did Congress approve student loan forgiveness? No. Congress has never passed a law that cancels student debt across the board. The forgiveness options that exist today, such as Public Service Loan Forgiveness and disability discharge, come from older laws, and the 2025 budget reconciliation law mostly tightened federal student lending rather than expanding relief.
Last reviewed: October 2026.
Headlines about student loan forgiveness often blur two different things: what a president announces and what Congress actually votes into law. That difference explains most of the confusion. This guide separates the two, walks through the key dates, and shows what relief is still available in October 2026.
Two paths to forgiveness: Congress or the executive branch
Student loan relief can come from two places:
- Laws passed by Congress. Programs written into the Higher Education Act or other statutes, such as Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF), disability discharge, closed school discharge and borrower defense.
- Executive actions. The Department of Education uses its rule-making and administrative power to run, expand or limit those programs, and presidents have tried to go further, for example with the 2022 cancellation plan.
Broad, one-time cancellation for everyone with federal loans has only ever been attempted through the second path. It has never been approved as a law by Congress.
What Congress has actually enacted
Congress created the forgiveness programs that borrowers use today, and it has also adjusted the rules around them:
- PSLF was created by Congress in 2007. It forgives remaining Direct Loan balances after 120 qualifying payments while working full time for a qualifying employer. Our guide to which jobs qualify covers the details.
- Income-driven repayment (IDR) forgiveness cancels a remaining balance after a long repayment period, and disability, closed school and borrower defense discharges cover specific situations.
- The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 made most forgiven student debt tax-free at the federal level, but only for discharges through the end of 2025, according to the IRS. That is a tax rule, not a new forgiveness program.
- The One Big Beautiful Bill Act (signed July 4, 2025) went the other way. According to analysis from CBO and the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, it created the Repayment Assistance Plan (RAP), ended Grad PLUS, added new borrowing limits and set up the phase-out of older repayment plans by 2028.
Why the 2022 cancellation plan did not survive
This is the episode most people have in mind when they ask: did Congress approve student loan forgiveness? In fact, Congress was never involved.
In 2022 the Biden administration announced a plan to cancel up to $20,000 per eligible borrower, with larger amounts for Pell Grant recipients. The Congressional Budget Office estimated it would cost about $400 billion over 30 years, with the caveat that the estimate was highly uncertain.
The plan relied on the HEROES Act of 2003, an emergency law, rather than on new legislation. On June 30, 2023, the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in Biden v. Nebraska that the HEROES Act did not authorize the cancellation. The majority said the Secretary of Education could not make that kind of basic change to the program Congress designed.
Congress also weighed in before the ruling. In May 2023 the House passed, 218 to 203, a Congressional Review Act resolution to overturn the plan. It was not what ended the plan, because the Supreme Court decision did.
Timeline of the main events
The timeline below shows why people keep asking whether Congress will approve student loan forgiveness, and why the answer has stayed the same.
| Date | What happened |
|---|---|
| 2007 | Congress creates PSLF |
| 2021 | American Rescue Plan makes most forgiven student debt tax-free through 2025 |
| 2022 | Administration announces the $10,000 to $20,000 cancellation plan |
| May 2023 | House votes 218-203 to overturn the plan |
| June 30, 2023 | Supreme Court strikes the plan down in Biden v. Nebraska |
| July 4, 2025 | Reconciliation law creates RAP and limits future borrowing |
| 2026 | The SAVE plan winds down after litigation; RAP becomes available from July 1, 2026 |
| June 30, 2026 | Courts vacate the Education Department rule on PSLF employer eligibility |
What is still being forgiven in 2026
Even though Congress did not approve student loan forgiveness across the board, the existing programs keep cancelling loans every month.
Even without a blanket law, the Education Department keeps processing relief under existing programs. The main ones are PSLF, IDR forgiveness, total and permanent disability discharge, closed school discharge, borrower defense and some teacher loan forgiveness. Eligibility is narrow and depends on your loan type, job, health or school.
PSLF is also in the news. A rule that would have let the Department deny employers for a “substantial illegal purpose” was set to take effect July 1, 2026, but was vacated by courts on June 30, 2026. NASFAA reported in August 2026 that the Department plans to appeal, and the vacatur stays in place while that happens. For related reading, see whether all nonprofits qualify and which disabilities qualify.
Could Congress approve student loan forgiveness in the future?
It could, but passing a new cancellation law would require agreement in both chambers and a presidential signature. Bills are regularly introduced, yet I could not find any broad cancellation measure that has become law. The same is true of proposals to end existing forgiveness programs. You can follow bill status on congress.gov and treat any claim that “forgiveness has been approved” as unconfirmed until you see it on studentaid.gov.
If you are curious about the other side of the ledger, see who pays for student loan forgiveness and whether forgiveness can be reversed.
Did Congress approve student loan forgiveness? What this means for you
- Do not wait for a blanket law. Check whether you qualify for an existing program, because those are the only routes open today.
- Log in at studentaid.gov to confirm your loan types and servicer. Only federal loans qualify for these programs; see our private loan guide.
- Keep paying unless your servicer confirms in writing that your loans are in an approved pause or discharge.
- Plan for taxes. Forgiveness granted in 2026 or later can be taxable at the federal level in some cases; our tax guide explains which ones.
Scam warning: Companies that promise “new congressional forgiveness” for an upfront fee are not working for you. Applications for federal programs are free at studentaid.gov, and the Department never charges to process them.
Claims you may see online, and how to check them
In practice, most viral claims that Congress did approve student loan forgiveness fail at least one of the checks below.
Because this topic attracts strong opinions, several claims circulate that sound official but are not. Here is a quick way to sort them.
- “Congress just passed forgiveness for everyone.” A real law would appear on congress.gov with a bill number and a signing date, and the Department of Education would post implementation steps on studentaid.gov. If neither exists, the claim is unconfirmed.
- “A new executive order erased your balance.” Executive orders cannot override the limits the Supreme Court described in 2023, and an order alone does not change your balance. Your servicer account is the only place that shows your actual debt.
- “The reconciliation law ended all forgiveness.” The law changed repayment plans and borrowing limits. PSLF and the other discharge programs were not repealed, based on the sources listed below.
- “Forgiveness is always tax-free.” It depends on the program and the year the debt is discharged. See our guide on paying taxes on student loan forgiveness.
Worked example: checking a claim that Congress approved student loan forgiveness
Suppose a post on social media says that Congress has just approved $20,000 of forgiveness for every borrower and that applications close in ten days. Here is how to test it in a few minutes, using the same steps a journalist would. The scenario is invented, but the method is real.
First, search Congress.gov for the bill name or number. Every bill that passes both chambers and is signed by the president shows a status of became law, with the date. If the search finds nothing, or shows a bill that was only introduced or referred to committee, nothing has been approved.
Second, open StudentAid.gov as well. Federal Student Aid announces every new program on its own site and in emails to borrowers from an official address. If the site says nothing, there is no program, however confident the post sounds.
Third, check the Congressional Research Service or a major news outlet for a summary. Large changes to student loans, such as the 2025 budget reconciliation law, generate detailed coverage within hours. Therefore, a claim with no coverage is almost always false or confused.
In this example, the search finds a bill that was introduced in the House and never voted on. The answer to the question did Congress approve student loan forgiveness is still no, and the ten-day deadline is a pressure tactic.
Common misconceptions: did Congress approve student loan forgiveness?
- Congress approved forgiveness in 2022. It did not. The 2022 cancellation plan was an executive action under the HEROES Act, and the Supreme Court blocked it in 2023.
- A bill that passed one chamber is law. A bill must pass the House and the Senate in identical form and be signed by the president, or survive a veto override, before it changes anything.
- The One Big Beautiful Bill Act created new forgiveness. The 2025 law mostly restructured repayment plans and borrowing limits. It kept PSLF and made the tax exclusion for death and disability discharges permanent, but it did not add broad cancellation.
- If Congress has not acted, no forgiveness exists. Existing programs created by earlier laws, including PSLF, Teacher Loan Forgiveness, income-driven forgiveness and disability discharge, continue to cancel loans every month.
- Forgiveness laws apply to private loans. Federal legislation on student loans addresses federal loans. Private loans are covered in our guide to private student loan forgiveness options.
- A president can simply order cancellation. The 2023 ruling narrowed that route. As a result, future executive action would need a clearer statutory basis, which is why many advocates now focus on Congress.
How a forgiveness bill would actually become law
- Introduction. A member of the House or Senate introduces a bill, which receives a number such as H.R. or S. followed by digits.
- Committee review. The education committees hold hearings and may amend the text. Indeed, most bills stop here.
- Floor votes. Each chamber must pass the bill. In the Senate, most legislation needs 60 votes to end debate, unless it moves through budget reconciliation, which has its own limits.
- Reconciling differences. If the versions differ, a conference or amendment process produces one text that both chambers approve again.
- Presidential signature. Finally, the president signs or vetoes. A veto can be overridden only by two-thirds of both chambers.
- Implementation. The Department of Education writes rules and updates systems, which usually takes months. The Congress.gov record shows each step, so you can see exactly where any bill stands.
For the cost debate that shapes these votes, see will taxpayers pay for student loan forgiveness, and for the programs that already exist, read what jobs qualify for student loan forgiveness.
Sources and further reading
- IRS Tax Topic 431: Canceled debt
- CRFB: Student loan costs after the reconciliation reforms
- NASFAA: How OBBBA affects federal student loan costs
- NASFAA: House passes bill to rescind the cancellation plan
- National Constitution Center: Biden v. Nebraska
- CBS News: CBO estimate of the 2022 plan
- NASFAA: Department appeals ruling that struck down the PSLF rule
- Federal Student Aid: Forgiveness, cancellation and discharge
Frequently asked questions
Did Congress approve student loan forgiveness in 2026?
No broad cancellation law has been enacted that I could find. Existing programs such as PSLF and disability discharge continue, and the 2025 reconciliation law changed repayment and borrowing rules.
Why was Biden’s forgiveness plan struck down?
The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 on June 30, 2023 that the HEROES Act did not give the Secretary of Education authority to cancel that much debt.
Is PSLF still available?
Yes. PSLF remains in the law for qualifying Direct Loan borrowers who work full time for a qualifying employer and make 120 qualifying payments. Employer-eligibility rules have been litigated, so check studentaid.gov for the latest.
What did the One Big Beautiful Bill Act change for student loans?
According to CBO-based analysis, it created the Repayment Assistance Plan, ended Grad PLUS for new borrowing, added new borrowing limits and began phasing out older income-driven plans by 2028.
Can the president cancel student loans without Congress?
Not broadly through the HEROES Act, according to the 2023 Supreme Court decision. The Department can still administer discharge programs that Congress has already authorized.
More questions on whether Congress will approve student loan forgiveness
Where can I check whether new forgiveness has passed?
Use studentaid.gov for program announcements and congress.gov for bill status. Treat social media or ad claims as unconfirmed until you see them there.
Do I need to pay a company to apply for forgiveness?
No. Federal forgiveness and discharge applications are free. Anyone demanding an upfront fee is a red flag.
Did Congress approve student loan forgiveness for teachers or nurses specifically?
Congress created Teacher Loan Forgiveness and several health-profession repayment programs years ago, and those remain in place. No new occupation-based cancellation has passed since 2025.
How would I be notified if Congress approved new forgiveness?
Federal Student Aid would announce it on StudentAid.gov and email borrowers from an official address, and your servicer would update your account. You would never need to pay or respond to a cold call to enroll.
Has any state legislature approved student loan forgiveness?
Some states run repayment assistance programs for specific professions or regions, funded by state budgets. These are limited programs, not broad cancellation, and they apply only to residents who meet the program rules.
This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Rules change, so confirm details with the official sources above or a qualified professional before you act.