The U.S. Department of Education asked a federal judge for an 18-month extension to resolve nearly 200,000 borrower-defense claims tied to a 2022 settlement in Sweet v. McMahon. The request moves a court-ordered Jan. 28 deadline to July 2027 and covers borrowers who filed after the settlement’s initial list but before final approval. The Project on Predatory Student Lending urged the court to deny the extension, calling on the department to honor its prior commitments to provide automatic relief if deadlines were missed. The department said it lacks the resources to process the remaining backlog within the original timetable. For university leaders and financial-aid officers, the extension signals continued legal and administrative uncertainty over debt relief eligibility, timelines for claim resolution, and potential financial impacts on institutions that face enforcement or reputational risk linked to for-profit providers named in the settlement.