The Biden administration will withdraw two unfinished student loan regulations that aimed to cancel debt for around 38 million people, an attempt to prevent the incoming Trump administration from undermining the proposals in the future.

The decision to withdraw the regulations was a tacit acknowledgment that they would go nowhere under the administration of Mr. Trump, who described the plans as “vile” this year on the campaign trail. But it is also a strategy to make sure the next administration cannot rewrite or abandon the proposals in court, which could doom them legally for many years to come.

The pending regulations were essentially a Plan B after the Supreme Court ruled last year that the Biden administration had overstepped its authority with its plan to wipe out more than $400 billion in student debt.

The more expansive plan of the two, proposed in April, would have given the education secretary broad discretion to cancel student loan balances in cases where interest on borrowers’ loans had ballooned over time, or where borrowers had been paying regularly for more than 20 years without reaching an end. The administration had estimated that nearly 30 million people could have qualified for relief under the regulation.

The other proposal, put forward in October, would have extended forgiveness to borrowers with a demonstrated financial hardship that made paying off their student debt unfeasible.

In twin notices posted to the Federal Register, the Education Department said it was not withdrawing the rules “based upon a changed view of the secretary’s authority,” but had decided to focus on supporting borrowers still struggling to make payments after the pandemic.

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