Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/22pdf/22-506_nmip.pdf
Page Number: 10.0

Cite as:  600 U. S. ____ (2023) 

5 

Opinion of the Court 

But  the  Secretary  took  more  significant  action  in  re-
sponse  to  the  COVID–19  pandemic.    On  March  13,  2020, 
the President declared the pandemic a national emergency. 
Presidential  Proclamation  No.  9994,  85  Fed.  Reg.  15337–
15338 (2020).  One week later, then-Secretary of Education 
Betsy DeVos announced that she was suspending loan re-
payments and interest accrual for all federally held student
loans.  See Dept. of Ed., Breaking News: Testing Waivers
and  Student  Loan  Relief  (Mar.  20,  2020).    The  following 
week,  Congress  enacted  the  Coronavirus  Aid,  Relief,  and 
Economic Security Act, which required the Secretary to ex-
tend the suspensions through the end of September 2020.
134 Stat. 404–405.  Before that extension expired, the Pres-
ident directed the Secretary, “[i]n light of the national emer-
gency,” to “effectuate appropriate waivers of and modifica-
tions to” the Education Act to keep the suspensions in effect
through the end of the year.  85 Fed. Reg. 49585.  And a few 
months  later,  the  Secretary  further  extended  the  suspen-
sions, broadened eligibility for federal financial assistance, 
and waived certain administrative requirements (to allow,
for example, virtual rather than on-site accreditation visits
and to extend deadlines for filing reports).  Id., at 79856– 
79863; 86 Fed. Reg. 5008–5009 (2021).

Over a year and a half passed with no further action be-
yond  keeping  the  repayment  and  interest  suspensions  in 
place.  But  in August 2022, a few  weeks before President 
Biden stated that “the pandemic is over,” the Department 
of  Education  announced  that  it  was  once  again  issuing 
“waivers and modifications” under the Act—this time to re-
duce and eliminate student debts directly.  See App. 257–
259; Washington Post, Sept. 20, 2022, p. A3, col. 1.  During
the first year of the pandemic, the Department’s Office of 
General  Counsel  had  issued  a  memorandum  concluding
that  “the  Secretary  does  not  have  statutory  authority  to 
provide  blanket  or  mass  cancellation,  compromise,  dis-
charge, or forgiveness of student loan principal balances.”