The U.S. Senate has rejected an effort to repeal President Joe Biden's income-driven repayment policy for federal student loans. 

The Senate, according to the Washington Examiner, did so on Wednesday. The final vote was 50 to 49, which suggests that the vote was along party lines - and, by and large, it was.

The one exception was U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV), who voted with Senate Republicans. It also has to be noted that U.S. Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) did not cast a vote.

At issue, here, is the Biden administration's new Income Driven Repayment regulation, which is known as the Saving on Valuable Education (SAVE) plan.

USA Today reports, "The SAVE plan is being implemented in two parts. This fall, borrowers are seeing a rise in income exemption for student loan payments from 150 percent to 225 percent above the federal poverty guidelines. Borrowers will also not see their unpaid interest grow."

"Next year, borrowers will receive other benefits such as monthly payments getting cut from 10 percent of discretionary income to 5 percent," the outlet adds.

U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) is the one who introduced the Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolution on which the Senate voted on Wednesday. The CRA would have repealed the SAVE plan. But, the effort, as mentioned, fell just one vote short - meaning that Biden's SAVE plan will survive, at least for now.

Cassidy recently explained to the Examiner why it is that he is against the SAVE plan.

"This is erasing the whiteboard and you don't have to pay. Someone else is going to pay it for you," Cassidy said.

He added, "I think that's fundamentally unfair in a democracy. If the idea of a democracy is everyone is treated the same, this is not democracy."

The SAVE plan is just one way in which the Biden administration is trying to assist federal student loan borrowers. Most notably, Biden put forth a plan that would have canceled up to $20,000 in federal student loan debt, per borrower, so long as the borrower is currently making less than $125,000 per year. The plan, however, was struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court in June.

Since then, the Biden administration has been trying to find workarounds. The SAVE plan is one of these workarounds.

Thus far, Biden's Department of Education reports that it has canceled $127 billion in federal student loan debt.

This, of course, does not mean that the debt magically disappears. It just means that someone other than the borrower will be paying it.