President Joe Biden approved an additional $9 billion in student debt relief Wednesday after the Supreme Court rejected his initial plan to address the issue.

The new initiative will benefit 125,000 Americans, the White House said in a statement. It brings the total number of people getting the relief to 3.6 million, totaling $127 billion in debt cancellation since the beginning of the Biden administration, according to the statement.

"For years, millions of eligible borrowers were unable to access the student debt relief they qualified for, but that's all changed thanks to President Biden and this administration's relentless efforts to fix the broken student loan system," Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona said in a statement.

"Today's announcement builds on everything our administration has already done to protect students from unaffordable debt, make repayment more affordable, and ensure that investments in higher education pay off for students and working families."

U.S. President Biden delivers remarks on student loan debt relief plan at the White House in Washington
President Joe Biden Reuters

The president will detail the measure in a speech Wednesday afternoon.

The White House said the plan is an alternative after the Supreme Court rejected in late June Biden's original student debt relief plan, which would have canceled up to $20,000 in loans for borrowers who qualified for it. The court ruled 6-3 that the measure was unconstitutional.

The new announcement comes as student-debt payments resumed this month after a pause of more than three years. The initial moratoriums on payments were adopted by the Trump administration in 2020, during the Covid-19 lockdowns. They were repeatedly extended until the Biden administration and Republicans in Congress reached an agreement to resume payments as part of government debt talks.

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