Not an Obama bureaucrat. The article says the program began in 2007.
2007? That explains much. Congress (both houses) was taken over by who starting in January 2007? This was likely a trailer bill attached to a larger piece of legislation in 2007.
Furthermore, obama has long supported the idea that public "service", ie the bureacracy, is nobler than the greedy private, that would be the productive, sector.
In the example cited we have a lawyer w/ $200K worth of student debt that I'm now on the hook for. Once we erase his debt he'll drop the namby-pamby non-profit he's working for and start after the real money--class-actions against the companies we work for.
It's all too beautiful.
Yes, when the democrats took over, they built this into the appropriations.