Student Loan Debt Relief Checks Could Be Mailed in 'Two Weeks,' Biden Says

President Joe Biden has predicted that checks could be sent to those who applied for his student loan debt forgiveness program within "two weeks," despite the program being tied up in court.

The president's program, which forgives up to $20,000 in outstanding debt for borrowers making $125,000 or less per year, was temporarily frozen following a Republican-led legal challenge last week. Applications for the program opened on October 15, with 22 million out of around 44 million eligible Americans applying during the first week.

When asked about the freeze during a NewsNation interview on Thursday, Biden said his administration would win the court case and that the program would soon resume.

"We're gonna win that case," said Biden. "I think in the next two weeks, you're gonna see those checks going out. That's my response."

While most eligible borrowers are expected to have their debt automatically canceled if the program resumes, the "checks" that Biden referred to may be refund checks for those who paid their loans after the COVID-19 forbearance period began on March 13, 2020.

Newsweek has reached out to the White House for comment and additional information.

Assuming that the program does resume, the Department of Education has estimated that as many as half of those eligible could see their loan debt completely erased. Applications remain open during the current freeze.

The program was temporarily halted after an emergency motion was filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit last week by six Republican-led states: Arkansas, Nebraska, Missouri, Iowa, Kansas and South Carolina.

Borrowers in the states that sued have a combined estimated $104.1 billion in outstanding debt, according to the Education Data Initiative.

The states argued that the debt relief plan hurts private lenders and complained that Biden said last month that the COVID-19 pandemic was "over" despite the program supposedly hinging on the pandemic continuing.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) responded to the lawsuit on Monday, arguing that the states would "suffer no irreparable injury from the provision of much-needed relief to millions of Americans, but the public interest would be greatly harmed by its denial" in a court filing, according to USA Today.

The states were given a deadline of Thursday to respond to the DOJ filing.

According to the Congressional Budget Office, the program could cost up to $400 billion. Republicans have criticized the plan as an unfair government handout, saying that it unjustly forces those who did not attend college or had already paid off their loans to pay the debt of others.

The ultimate fate of the program could remain unclear until several legal hurdles in addition to the challenge brought by the states are resolved.

Last week, Biden pointed out that former President Donald Trump-appointed Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett rejected a challenge, with the president saying that the high court was "on Biden's side" before blasting Republican critics for alleged hypocrisy.

"I don't want to hear it from MAGA Republican officials, who had hundreds of thousands of dollars of debts—even millions of dollars—in pandemic relief loans forgiven, who now are attacking me for helping working-class and middle-class Americans," Biden said.