Welcome to POLITICO’s West Wing Playbook, your guide to the people and power centers in the Biden administration. With help from Allie Bice. Send tips | Subscribe here| Email Eli | Email Lauren When the Supreme Court last month appeared skeptical during oral arguments about the legality of President JOE BIDEN’s student debt cancellation plan, the White House could not say what its back up plan would be. Even after Biden acknowledged he was “not confident about the outcome of the [Supreme Court] decision,” the White House had little advice to offer anxious borrowers. In a tense briefing room exchange with NBC’s PETER ALEXANDER, White House press secretary KARINE JEAN-PIERRE put it plainly: “We do not have another plan.” The reluctance to come up with a “Plan B” has frustrated debt relief advocacy groups. That anxiety has been compounded by a fear that they’ve also lost their biggest and most influential White House allies: Biden’s former chief of staff and his top economic adviser “We had great champions in RON KLAIN and BRIAN DEESE, so I think there’s some anxiety,” said PERSIS YU, deputy executive director and managing counsel at the Student Borrower Protection Center. “The anxiety is in the unknown.” Some debt relief advocates say the White House has held fewer meetings with advocacy groups and has not been responsive to their behind-the-scenes push to provide borrowers with more clarity on the situation. And while advocates feel like they’ve been good team players by not being more publicly critical of the White House, their patience is running out. “We’re all trying to gauge when to start being more confrontational, and I think we’re nearing that point,” said one debt relief advocate, who asked not to be named to protect their relationship with the White House. The White House is limited in what it can publicly say while the case is before the Supreme Court, according to a person familiar with the administration’s thinking. “But what advocates are essentially asking the Administration to do here is prejudge the outcome and imperil their legal case,” the person said. When asked for a comment, the White House pointed to Jean-Pierre’s briefing room remarks. Before Biden announced his plan in August to cancel up to $20,000 for some borrowers, West Wing Playbook wrote about internal disagreement over how to address the outstanding $1.7 trillion in student loan debt Americans carry. Domestic Policy Council head SUSAN RICE was, at the time, viewed by many outside allies as against aggressive or ambitious debt cancellation. Advocates credited Klain for pushing Biden — who had expressed initial skepticism about canceling debt — to ultimately get behind the idea. So far, advocates say they don’t view Klain’s successor, JEFF ZIENTS, playing that same role. That may simply be because the issue is currently in the hands of the courts. But Zients, they say, also has not made efforts to ease concerns about what comes after a potentially adverse ruling. They note Zients lacks close relationships with progressives, adding to the unease that addressing student debt won’t be a priority for the president. Still, other advocates say that even if the chief of staff isn’t their number one cheerleader, there are other strong proponents of debt cancellation in senior White House roles, like National Economic Council’s deputy director, BHARAT RAMAMURTI. Some advocates also take comfort in the fact that Biden campaigned on debt relief during the 2022 midterms. They feel that no matter what the Supreme Court rules, the White House is locked in to figuring out how to get debt cancellation across the finish line, especially as the 2024 election cycle nears. “We all loved Ron. He was personally invested,” said MELISSA BYRNE, founder of the student debt activist group WeThe45Million who also worked on Sen. BERNIE SANDERS’ 2020 Democratic presidential campaign. “While no one likes changes, the people at the administration work on behalf of the president and implement the president's vision. And the president wants cancellation.” MESSAGE US — Are you A STUDENT WHO COULD POTENTIALLY HAVE THEIR DEBT REDUCED OR CANCELED? We want to hear from you. And we’ll keep you anonymous! Email us at westwingtips@politico.com. Did someone forward this email to you? Subscribe here!
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