The White House released detailed new data Friday breaking down who has been approved for student loan forgiveness under President Biden's one-time debt relief plan.

The U.S. Department of Education has "fully approved" more than 16 million people for federal student loan forgiveness and sent their applications to loan servicers, according to the Biden administration.

In the less than four weeks that applications were available, 26 million people either applied for debt relief or had already provided sufficient information to the Department of Education to be deemed eligible for relief.

On Friday, the administration gave a sweeping state-by-state breakdown of the number of borrowers who have applied and been approved for its debt relief program. Not surprisingly, the breakdown largely mirrors the population, with California (1,473,000), Texas (1,391,000), Florida (1,047,000), and New York (998,000) having some of the highest approval figures.

Biden's one-time student loan debt relief plan would provide $10,000 in student loan forgiveness for many borrowers with government-held federal loans. The amount of debt relief can spike to $20,000 for borrowers who received Pell Grants when they went to school.

To qualify, single and married-filing-separately borrowers must have earned under $125,000 in Adjusted Gross Income in either 2020 or 2021; that income cap doubles for borrowers who are married and filed their taxes jointly.

"Nearly 90%" of the student loan forgiveness relief would go to borrowers earning less than $75,000 per year, according to a White House fact sheet.

Within months, Republican and conservative groups had brought up at least six legal challenges against the plan.

Two federal courts blocked the implementation of the debt relief as the Education Department was processing student loan forgiveness applications. The Biden administration appealed to the Supreme Court, which agreed to consider the two challenges.

"Millions of those borrowers could be experiencing the benefits of that relief today – were it not for lawsuits brought on by elected officials in some of their own states," the White House said Friday, referencing the legal battles that have plagued the policy.

The Supreme Court is set to hear oral arguments on the two legal challenges in February, and a decision should be issued by June of this year. Should the policy be thrown out, it remains unclear if the Biden administration will have a backup plan for the millions of approved applicants.

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