From Bloomberg News reporters Justin Sink and Akayla Gardner:
President Joe Biden on Friday announced plans to cancel student debt for about 55,000 public sector workers, as his administration pushes to zero out balances for more people in the final weeks of his administration.
The move — which represents the cancellation of $4.28 billion owed on federal loans — pushes the total number of individuals who have received relief under Biden administration programs to nearly 5 million, the White House said. In total, about $180 billion has been forgiven.
He can forgive federal loans of people with government jobs easier. To do it for people that don't have public sector jobs he needs congressional approval, and they fought back hard on that when he tried it. I don't believe they'd be able to unforgive the debts, but IANAL.
He announced a broad cancellation that was going to happen months in the future, and the courts paused and then later said it wasn't allowed. If it had progressed very quickly it would have been harder to block. One could argue it was intended to give the court a chance to block it.
This current forgiveness is an executive order, so if it's not completed by the time Trump is the executive he can stop it easily.
I can only speak from across the pond, but that's likely the strategy. It has no downsides for the current administration - but the incoming administration either has to cancel it and look like the shitheads (not that they seem to care about that), or run with it to save face, and try and find the budget for it.