(Bloomberg) -- President Joe Biden said that nearly 22 million Americans have already signed up for his student debt forgiveness program, promoting enrollment in the initiative on Friday and assailing Republicans who have criticized the relief.

But hours after he spoke, a federal appeals court in St. Louis temporarily blocked the program from moving forward until it rules on an injunction request from six Republican-led states challenging its legality. 

Lawyers for the states asked the court to revive their lawsuit over the plan after it was dismissed Thursday by a federal judge who determined that the states wouldn’t suffer any direct harm if the plan went into effect.

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, in a statement on Friday night, said the order didn’t prevent people from applying to the program or from the application process from continuing. 

“The administration will continue to fight Republican officials suing to block our efforts to provide relief to working families,” she said.

Biden’s remarks, at the University of Delaware on Friday, represented his most aggressive promotion yet for the debt-relief plan, less than three weeks before midterm elections that will decide control of Congress. 

“Their outrage is wrong and it’s hypocritical,” Biden said at Delaware State University, singling out Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Senator Ted Cruz of Texas by name. 

“Who in the hell do they think they are?” he said, to applause from an audience largely made up of students.

Republican lawsuits threaten to throw millions of applicants into limbo, though the president applauded Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s decision on Thursday to deny one group of plaintiffs’ request to block the program before it takes effect.

For weeks after announcing the student-debt relief plan in August, Biden all but avoided talking about it as his administration worked out kinks in the application process. While they welcomed promotional efforts that kicked off this week, some Democrats have expressed worry that Biden waited too long to make an impact in the election.

Eligible borrowers can apply to have as much as $20,000 in debt forgiven.

“I certainly think there was an argument that it could have been done earlier,” said Chris Scott, chief political officer at Democracy for America, a progressive PAC, pointing out that his group was among those pushing the White House to act sooner.

He said development of the application portal may have led Biden to hold off from pushing the program on the trail. The site officially launched on Monday. 

In 2013, Democrats were stung after then-President Barack Obama’s healthcare.gov site to enroll people for health insurance crashed within hours of its launch, drawing widespread criticism.

Biden mentioned the incident off-hand in his remarks at Delaware State.

“One of the things I wanted to make sure is we didn’t end up where we were in a position that Barack and I were in terms of the Affordable Care Act -- it was made a little bit more difficult,” Biden said. “But we made sure we tested it. We tested it for a weekend to see how it worked, John, and guess what? It worked.”

Election Promise

The Congressional Budget Office estimates the loan-relief program will cost the government at least $400 billion, fueling Republican criticism that it represents reckless spending.

Even some prominent Democrats have distanced themselves over its expanse. Representative Tim Ryan, a Democrat in a tight Ohio Senate race, told Bloomberg News in a statement that loan forgiveness “goes too far” by extending aid to six-figure earners.

The initiative delivers on a Biden campaign promise and was hailed by allies as an election-year draw for young and progressive voters, who are crucial to helping Democrats retain the House and Senate. 

But the White House, pressured by progressives and civil-rights groups to forgive higher debt loads, deliberated the scope of relief for months and did not announce it until mid-August, less than three months from the elections. 

Allies cheered the final framework, but in the weeks before the application portal opened, Biden rarely mentioned the program even as he regularly rattled off other policy achievements.

“It’s gotten very little play on the campaign trail,” said Jeanne Zaino, a Bloomberg Politics contributor and political science professor at Iona University.

Building Back Together, an outside group that promotes administration policies, announced Thursday a six-figure ad campaign to encourage people to apply. The blitz on digital platforms will target young Americans in Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin -- three states with crucial Senate races.

“This is an issue that we shouldn’t be running from, we should be leaning into, and especially him,” Scott said of Biden.

Biden so far does not have more debt-focused events scheduled, but the White House intends to promote sign-ups in the coming weeks, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Court Challenges

The legal challengers argue that Biden exceeded his executive authority. 

Richard Painter, chief White House ethics lawyer under President George W. Bush, said he had “serious concerns” about Biden’s action. Painter said the rollout likely was held off while the Office of Legal Counsel reviewed the program’s legality.

With millions seeking relief, some Biden allies say the optics of Republican-appointed judges blocking debt assistance before the midterms could backfire on the GOP.

“You look at so many races that are toss-ups and close, this is the type of thing that pushes it further over the edge in the direction of Democrats,” said Scott, the Democratic strategist.

Electoral Backlash

Touting sign-ups could turn out Democrats, but Biden risks backlash from voters who view the plan as too costly or unnecessary.

A September NBC News poll found 43% said Biden’s debt assistance was a good idea, with 44% opposed. Among independents, 34% approved and 49% called it a bad idea.

Jay Townsend, a political consultant, said the effort is “enormously popular” with those who will benefit, but “unpopular for those who are not going to get anything.”

Zaino called it “a give-back” to progressives who backed Biden. “Certainly in a midterm that’s important to get the base out to vote,” she said.

Kentucky state Senator Chris McDaniel, a Republican, said many in his district view the policy as unfair to people who couldn’t go to college. 

“It’s fundamentally not fair to ask people to pay for a decision that others made that allows them to be a higher-earning individual,” McDaniel said in an interview.

--With assistance from Nancy Cook and Jennifer Jacobs.

(Updates with White House statement, starting in fourth paragraph.)

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