Samuel Corum/Getty Images This story is available exclusively to Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now. 45 million Americans owe $1.7 trillion in student debt, and 93% of that debt is federally owned. Forgiving student debt would generate more than $1 trillion of economic activity and create millions of jobs. The Biden administration could forgive all federal student loan debt tomorrow without Congress. Carl Gibson is a freelance journalist and columnist from Kentucky. This is an opinion column. The thoughts expressed are those of the author. President Biden took office facing down both a once-in-a-century pandemic and the economic fallout it created. But with Democrats having unified control of both chambers of Congress for the first time in more than a decade, Biden has a once-in-a-generation opportunity to effectively tackle those twin crises and significantly improve the lives of tens of millions of Americans.