The Biden administration is searching for alternative solutions to provide student debt relief after the Supreme Court struck down President Biden’s original plan for loan forgiveness. The court ruled that the HEROES Act does not grant the Secretary of Education, Miguel Cardona the authority to cancel student loan debt. President Biden now aims to utilize the Higher Education Act.

“We will ground this new approach in a different law than my original plan, the so-called Higher Education Act. That will allow Secretary Cardona, who is with me today, to compromise, waive, or release loans under certain circumstances,” said Biden in a briefing. “This new path is legally sound. It’s going to take longer, but in my view, it’s the best path that remains to provide debt relief for as many borrowers as possible.”

While the final version of the new plan will take time the Biden administration added provisions to soften the blow of repayment including lowering the income-driven repayment rate to 5 percent of one’s disposable income, and not reporting borrowers to credit agencies for a longer period of time.