late folks, thank you very much for for being here. Good afternoon to everyone else. Less than eight weeks ago I announced my administration's plan to forgive up to $10,000 in federal student loan debt and up to $20,000 if you received *** pell grant for folks earning less than $125,000 *** year. Today I'm announcing how millions millions of people working in middle class folks can apply for get this relief and it's simple and it's now it's easy. It's fast. At the end of my remarks, I'm gonna officially launched this new app new application site at student aid dot gov student aid dot co. You'll be able to fill out your name. So security number, date of birth and contact information, no forms to upload, no special log in to remember. It's available in english and in spanish on desktop and mobile. It takes less than five minutes. And if you have any questions you follow up, we will be able to follow up with you. This is *** game changer for millions of americans get moving and it took an incredible amount of effort to get this website done in such *** short time. I want to thank the Secretary of Education there. He is Secretary of Education Cardona who's here with me today. He and his team. Let *** talent group of data scientists and engineers across the federal government and build it and test it and launch this new application in just weeks. And the secretary insisted that test that had to be tested over the weekend it landed and handled more than eight million applications without *** glitch or any difficulty. We had over 10,000 people contact the White House that either send us letters or calls thanking us. It means more than eight million americans are starting this week on their way to receiving *** life changing relief that they're looking for. It started today with millions more and we're going to have the opportunity to do it as well as millions of people fill out the application. We're gonna make sure the system continues to work as smoothly as possible so that we can deliver student loan relief for millions of americans as quickly and as efficiently as possible. My commitment was if elected president, I was gonna make government work to deliver for the people. This this rollout keeps that commitment just as I'm keeping my commitment to relieve student debt as borrowers recover from this economic crisis caused by the once in *** lifetime pandemic. I hope God forbid I say once in *** lifetime that gets me to another issue, we need more funding for this. But anyway, for dealing with future pandemics. But I want to be clear who's going to benefit the most working people, the middle class. If you earn less than $125,000 *** year, You'll get up to $10,000 knocked off your student debt. If you earn less than $125,000 *** year and you received *** pell grant, you'll get up to an additional 10,000 knocked off that debt. So $20,000 in relief in total, more than 40 million Americans can stand to benefit from this relief. And about 90% 90% of that relief is gonna go to people making less than $75,000 *** year. Let me be clear now the dime will go to those in the top 5% of the income bracket period. Now let's talk about who is against helping millions of hard working middle class Americans. Republican members of Congress, Republican governors are trying to do everything they can to deny this relief even to their own constituents. As soon as I announced my administration's student debt plan, they started attacking it saying all kinds of things, their outrage is wrong and it's hypocritical. I will never apologize for helping working Americans and middle class people as they recover from the pandemic, especially not the same. Republicans who voted for $2 trillion Americans and the largest corporations and didn't pay for *** penny of it, racked up *** deficit. I don't want to hear from Republican officials again, who heard who had hundreds of thousands of dollars, even millions of dollars in pandemic relief loans that P. P. P loans, but who now attack the working middle class americans are getting relief. And these are members of Congress who received those loans, they didn't do anything wrong. But they qualified qualified for up to one case $2 million. And despite what the Republican officials say we can afford were able to afford the student loan relief. It's because of our historic deficit reduction. Republicans voted against. On my watch. The deficit fell by $350 billion $1 trillion dollars this fiscal year. We're also set to reduce another 300 billion over the next 10 years because of the Medicaid being able to negotiate drug prices. But that's not all. And relieving student debt. We're also resuming student loan program. Student loan program that we pause during the pandemic come january folks have to start to repay their student loans if they qualified. If they don't qualify for this relief, that means billions of dollars *** year will start coming into the U. S. Treasury. My administration's plan is economically responsible and economic responsible course to ensure *** smooth transition to repaint and preventing unnecessary defaults. And it also is focused on going after fraudsters who called borrowers. They're gonna they're gonna receive these calls. I tell anybody who has who's qualifying for these loans trying to qualify for these loans. If you get *** call pretending they're from the government trying to help you with your loans. Let's be clear. Hang up. You never have to pay for any federal help from the student loan program. You're gonna get calls if you do this and we'll pay that. You can get relief. That's fraud. If you get any questionable calls, please tell us by going to report fraud. Report fraud. D O T F T C dot gov. My message to fraudsters looking to cheat the american people is don't do it. We're gonna hold you accountable. Let me close with this. Today marks *** big step among others that my administration is taking to make education *** ticket to the middle class that folks can actually afford. But don't take my word for it. As I said, we received nearly 10,000 letters from across the country. Woman in colorado wrote, she grew up, she said in the school lunch and food stamp programs started working at age 13 on her way to college to *** good job until she was injured in an accident, couldn't find full time work. She said her student loan debt was weighing her down, but now she can quote breathe again. Mom in California wrote how she received *** pell grant to become *** nurse. She just had her fourth child. And the stress of the pandemic pulls the weight of the student loans on her even more heavily, making everyday life really hard. But now she says that weight has lifted, making life easier for and something we don't talk about very much. *** lot of seniors still carry burden of student debt whether for themselves or for their Children and grandchildren. Retiree in Oregon wrote how she never missed *** payment and says this relief quote means the world, that's what today's announcement is about. So let's get started. The new student loan application is now open. If you have federal student debt, please visit student aid dot gov. It's easy, simple and fast and it's *** new day for millions of americans all across our nation. Thank God bless you all and may God protect our troops, litigation could get in the way of this program. Yes, well that's what's going on right now, litigation is is underway and I don't think our our legal judgment is that it won't, but they're trying to stop it. How many people have already applied through the beta testing website? Over eight million people and will people who have privately held loans, will they at some point become eligible for this forgiveness? Because they no longer are, we are working on pathways there to support those, but we're moving as quickly as possible to provide relief as many people as possible. Mr President