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Trump administration lawyers have concluded that it would be illegal to forgive all or some of Americans’ student debt through an executive action — as congressional Democrats have urged the incoming Biden administration to do — arguing that such a move would require Congress to pass a law, the Wall Street Journal reported. Education Department lawyers lay out their reasoning in a memo dated yesterday to Betsy DeVos, who resigned last week as education secretary. Congressional Democrats and progressive groups have urged President-elect Joe Biden to forgive most or all of the $1.6 trillion in federal student debt unilaterally in his first 100 days in office. They argue that existing law authorizes the executive branch to forgive student debt without any action from Congress. “We believe the Secretary does not have the statutory authority to cancel, compromise, discharge, or forgive, on a blanket or mass basis, principal balances of student loans, and/or to materially modify the repayment amounts or terms thereof,” Reed Rubinstein, the Education Department’s principal deputy general counsel, wrote in the memo to Mrs. DeVos. Mr. Rubinstein’s tenure will end along with those of other appointees when the new administration takes office Jan. 20. Biden has said that he supports writing off $10,000 in student debt for every borrower as part of a package of measures to help households financially during the pandemic. About 43 million Americans owe $1.6 trillion in federal student loans. But Biden has said that he questions the executive branch’s authority to forgive student debt unilaterally. Some congressional Democrats have urged Mr. Biden to forgive $50,000 in student debt for all borrowers.

Senate Democrats plan to prioritize a bill containing more COVID-19 relief, including additional $1,400 payments to many Americans and money to accelerate vaccine deployment, as their “first order of legislative business” when they assume control of the chamber, the New York Times reported. The priorities, which Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the incoming majority leader, outlined in a letter to colleagues on Tuesday, echo many of the policies that President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. has signaled he will officially unveil on Thursday. The president-elect has said repeatedly in recent days that he will push Congress to pass an additional pandemic relief bill meant to boost the flagging economic recovery and to accelerate efforts to deploy vaccine doses. In a call with Schumer and Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Friday, Biden stressed the need for “immediate economic relief for families and small businesses, funding for COVID-19 response, including vaccinations, testing, school reopening, and state and local frontline workers,” according to a readout from the Biden transition team. Schumer picked up on those themes in his letter. “The work of the 117th Congress will begin in the wake of a devastating attack, on the heels of a devastating year,” he wrote. Schumer said the immediate relief bill would contain the additional money, on top of $600 individual payments Congress approved last month, to fulfill the promise of $2,000 payments that Mr. Biden made to voters in Georgia’s runoff elections this month: “We will get that done.” He also said that it would contain money for vaccine distribution, schools, small businesses and assistance for state and local governments, which was left out of the last COVID-19 package in a dispute with Republicans. Schumer said senators would also prepare broader legislation to address climate change, infrastructure, manufacturing, immigration, criminal justice, inequality and elections.

Despite signing a seven-year, $49 million contract extension in 2018, San Jose Sharks left winger Evander Kane filed for chapter 7 bankruptcy, The Athletic reported. The filling detailed liabilities of $26.8 million and assets — largely three homes — of $10.2 million. And the filing included a note that warns he may not even play this year. “Debtor may terminate his contract and he may opt out of the season, as allowed under current rules, because of health concerns given the recent birth of his first child,” the bankruptcy petition said. “Should he terminate his contract or opt out at a point in the season, Debtor will not receive his salary.” The filing includes $10.2 million in assets, including three homes. Kaplan noted that Kane's monthly income is minus-$91,131.13 and the 29-year-old lost $1.5 million gambling over the last month. He also notes that seven dependents live with Kane. Recently, Centennial Bank filed an $8.3 million lawsuit in Florida federal court against Kane and the Sharks over pending debt.

Senate Democratic Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said on Wednesday that passing legislation to provide $2,000 stimulus checks will be one of the first orders of business once Democrats take control of the chamber on Jan. 20, The Hill reported. "One of the first things I want to do ... is deliver the $2,000 checks to the American families," Schumer told reporters during his first press conference after Tuesday's runoffs elections in Georgia that put Democrats on track to regain control of the Senate for the first time since 2014. The Senate appears headed to a 50-50 split, with Vice President-elect Kamala Harris poised to cast any tie-breaking votes. Schumer declined to provide any details on how he would try to pass legislation for the $2,000 checks, such as whether it would be a stand-alone bill, part of a broader coronavirus relief package or the first measure called up for a vote.

The federal government has only just begun sending out a second round of stimulus payments, and many people are already waiting a little longer than expected for their money, the New York Times reported. Many payments have been sent to inactive or temporary accounts that taxpayers don’t have access to. It’s not clear how many people are affected, but the tax preparation company Jackson Hewitt said the Internal Revenue Service had sent payments to more than 13 million bank accounts that were no longer open or valid. “Because of the speed at which the law required the I.R.S. to issue the second round of Economic Impact Payments, some payments may have been sent to an account that may be closed or no longer active,” the agency said in a statement yesterday. Companies like TurboTax, H&R Block and Jackson Hewitt sometimes set up temporary accounts for clients when they prepare returns. For example, clients who opts to have preparation fees deducted from their refund may be issued one of these accounts, allowing the tax firm to take its share and then pass on the rest. After that, the accounts are generally inactive — but may still be linked to the taxpayers in IRS records. Payments that are sent to inactive accounts must be returned to the Treasury. People who don’t receive their payments promptly should claim the so-called Recovery Rebate Credit on their 2020 tax return, the I.R.S. said. (The credit can be found on line 30 of the 2020 Form 1040 or 1040-SR.)

As 2020 comes to an end, the $600 promised by the federal government — poised to begin appearing in bank accounts soon — is welcome news to millions of needy Americans whose finances have been devastated after nine months of economic crisis wrought by the coronavirus pandemic. But for people whose bank accounts are overdrawn, whether they get their hands on the money depends on what the country’s banks decide to do, the New York Times reported. Banks hold this power because, for a vast majority of people, the stimulus money will be deposited in the same bank accounts in which they also receive tax refunds. In the past week, the largest United States banks have pledged to temporarily zero out their customers’ negative balances so they can get access to their stimulus money and put it toward whatever expense seems the most pressing. Negative balances typically include the various fees that banks tack on to customers’ accounts for letting the customers withdraw more money than they have.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) blocked an attempt by Democrats yesterday to hold an immediate vote on increasing stimulus checks to $2,000 from $600, leaving the fate of the measure unclear as President Trump continued to demand the larger payouts and more Republicans publicly endorsed the idea, the New York Times reported. Instead, McConnell provided vague assurances that the Senate would “begin the process” of discussing $2,000 checks and two other issues that Trump has demanded lawmakers address: election security and removing legal protections for social media platforms. McConnell would not say whether he planned separate votes on the three issues or if he would bring them for a vote on the Senate floor at all. But in a sign of how he might approach them, the majority leader introduced new legislation yesterday afternoon combining the $2,000 checks, election security and social media provisions into one bill, which would most likely doom the effort. The sudden talk of election security complicates matters, given that Trump continues to claim, without evidence, that voter fraud cost him re-election. Democrats would undoubtedly resist anything that could be seen as trying to undermine the outcome of the election.

The Internal Revenue Service began sending $600 stimulus payments to eligible Americans’ bank accounts on Tuesday evening and will continue processing the transfers into next week, according to a statement from the agency, Bloomberg News reported. The IRS and Treasury Department will start mailing paper checks on Wednesday. The $600 payments will go to many low- and middle-income adults. Dependent children ages 16 and under in those households are also eligible for $600 each. “These payments may begin to arrive in some accounts by direct deposit as early as tonight,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin wrote on Twitter Tuesday. “The IRS emphasizes that there is no action required by eligible individuals to receive this second payment,” the IRS said in a statement on Tuesday evening. “Some Americans may see the direct deposit payments as pending or as provisional payments in their accounts before the official payment date of Jan. 4, 2021.” The IRS is beginning to send the payments just two days after President Donald Trump signed the $2.3 trillion government funding and coronavirus relief package into law. The relief measures include a second round of direct payments as an attempt to bolster consumer spending and disposable income, which have fallen in recent weeks amid surges in COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths, and new restrictions by cities and states.