The United States Supreme Court began hearing arguments on Tuesday about President Joe Biden's student debt relief plan. The court's decision will affect millions of borrowers who could see their loans reduced or forgiven.
美国最高法院周二开始听取有关总统乔·拜登的学生债务减免计划的辩论。法院的判决将影响数百万借款人，他们的贷款可能会减少或免除。
 
How does the plan work?
该计划如何运作？
 
The Biden administration announced the debt forgiveness plan in August of last year. It would cancel $10,000 in federal student loan debt for individuals making less than $125,000 per year or for households making less than $250,000 per year. People who received a Pell Grant, a kind of special financing given to those who show higher financial need, would get an additional $10,000 of debt forgiven.
拜登政府于去年8月宣布了债务减免计划。它将为年收入低于 125,000 美元的个人或年收入低于 250,000 美元的家庭取消 10,000 美元的联邦学生贷款债务。获得佩尔助学金（一种提供给那些表现出更高财务需求的人的特殊融资）的人将获得额外的 10,000 美元债务减免。
 
College students can be a part of the plan if their loans were sent out, or distributed, before July 1 of last year. The plan would permit 43 million borrowers to get some debt forgiveness. About 20 million people could see their debt disappear completely, the Biden administration says.
如果大学生的贷款在去年 7 月 1 日之前发出或分发，则他们可以成为该计划的一部分。该计划将允许 4300 万借款人获得部分债务减免。拜登政府表示，大约 2000 万人的债务可能会完全消失。
 
The White House says 26 million people have applied for debt relief. Around 16 million people had already had their relief approved before courts suspended the program. The Congressional Budget Office has said the program will cost around $400 billion over the next thirty years.
白宫表示，已有 2600 万人申请了债务减免。在法院暂停该计划之前，大约有 1600 万人的救济金已经获得批准。国会预算办公室表示，该计划将在未来 30 年内耗资约 4000 亿美元。
 
Why the Supreme Court?
为什么是最高法院？
 
The Supreme Court is hearing two arguments against the plan. One involves six states, all led by members of the Republican Party. The other involves a legal action brought by two students.
最高法院正在审理两个反对该计划的论点。其中一项涉及六个州，全部由共和党成员领导。另一个涉及两名学生提起的法律诉讼。
 
A lower court dismissed the lawsuit involving the states, which are Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska and South Carolina. The court said the states could not legally protest the program because they were not harmed by it.
下级法院驳回了涉及阿肯色州、爱荷华州、堪萨斯州、密苏里州、内布拉斯加州和南卡罗来纳州的诉讼。法院表示，各州不能合法抗议该计划，因为它们没有受到伤害。
 
The states appealed the decision and the U.S. Court of Appeals ruled to suspend operation of the program. Then, the Supreme Court agreed to consider the case.
各州对该决定提出上诉，美国上诉法院裁定暂停该计划的实施。随后，最高法院同意审理此案。
 
The students' case involves Myra Brown, who is not able to receive debt relief because her loans are privately held. It also involves Alexander Taylor, who is only able to get $10,000 and not the full $20,000 because he did not receive a Pell grant. The students say that the Biden administration did not go through the correct process in putting the plan into action.
学生的案例涉及迈拉布朗，她无法获得债务减免，因为她的贷款是私人持有的。它还涉及亚历山大泰勒，他只能获得 10,000 美元而不是全部的 20,000 美元，因为他没有获得佩尔助学金。学生们表示，拜登政府没有通过正确的程序将计划付诸实施。
 
Texas-based U.S. District Judge Mark Pittman, an appointee of President Donald Trump, agreed with the students and ruled to block the program. Pittman ruled that the Biden administration did not have clear permission from Congress to begin the program. A federal appeals court left Pittman's ruling in place, and the Supreme Court agreed to take up the case along with the states' challenge.
总部位于德克萨斯州的美国地区法官马克皮特曼是唐纳德特朗普总统的任命，他同意学生的意见并裁定阻止该计划。皮特曼裁定，拜登政府没有获得国会的明确许可才能启动该计划。联邦上诉法院维持皮特曼的裁决不变，最高法院同意在各州提出异议的同时审理此案。
 
Legal basis of plan
计划的法律依据
 
To cancel student loan debt, the Biden administration is using the Higher Education Relief Opportunities for Students Act, commonly known as the HEROES Act. Put in place after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, the law was designed to protect service members from financial loss while they fought in wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. The law permits the secretary of education to waive or change the terms of federal student loans as necessary in connection with a national emergency.
为了取消学生贷款债务，拜登政府正在使用《高等教育学生救济机会法》，通常称为《英雄法案》。该法律是在 2001 年 9 月 11 日恐怖袭击事件发生后制定的，旨在保护服役人员在阿富汗和伊拉克战争中免受经济损失。法律允许教育部长在国家紧急情况下根据需要放弃或更改联邦学生贷款的条款。
 
Trump, a Republican, declared the COVID-19 pandemic a national emergency in March 2020. But Biden recently announced that the national emergency will end on May 11. The Biden administration has said that the end to the national emergency does not change the legal argument for student loan debt cancellation because the pandemic affected millions of student borrowers who might have fallen behind on their loans during the emergency.
共和党人特朗普于 2020 年 3 月宣布 COVID-19 大流行为国家紧急状态。但拜登最近宣布国家紧急状态将于 5 月 11 日结束。拜登政府曾表示，国家紧急状态的结束不会改变法律论据取消学生贷款债务，因为大流行影响了数百万可能在紧急情况下拖欠贷款的学生借款人。
 
Likely questions
可能的问题
 
The Supreme Court will likely pay careful attention to several big issues.
最高法院可能会密切关注几个大问题。
 
The first one is whether the states and the two student borrowers have the right to sue over the plan in the first place, a legal idea called "standing."
如果法院认定没有资格，那么拜登政府将明确推进该计划。为了证明他们有资格，各州和借款人将必须部分证明他们在经济上受到了该计划的损害。
 
If the court finds that there is no standing, then the Biden administration will be clear to go ahead with the plan. To prove they have standing, the states and borrowers will have to show in part that they are financially harmed by the plan.
除了资格问题之外，法官们还将询问《英雄法案》是否赋予拜登政府将计划付诸实施的权力，以及它是如何实施的。
 
Beyond the question of standing, the justices will also be asking whether the HEROES Act gives the Biden administration the power to put the plan into action and how it went about doing so.
除了资格问题之外，法官们还将询问《英雄法案》是否赋予拜登政府将计划付诸实施的权力，以及它是如何实施的。