The action makes those borrowers eligible for the administration’s Pay As You Earn program by expanding on a 2010 law that capped repayments for newer loans but excluded borrowers who took out loans before October 2007 or who stopped borrowing by October 2011.

“I’m only here because this country gave me a chance at higher education,” Obama said, with help in the form of loans, grants and scholarships. “This is why I feel so strongly about this.”

For a 2009 college graduate earning $39,000 a year but carrying $26,500 in loan debt, the plan would reduce monthly repayments by $126 per month and $1,500 a year compared to the standard repayment plan, the White House said.

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The plan is expected to be in place by December 2015, after the Education Department puts the change into effect through the regulatory process.

But Republicans have criticized the recent measures as failing to help current students and ignoring the root problems that make college affordability an issue.

“Today’s much-hyped loophole closure does nothing to reduce the cost of pursuing a higher education, or improve access to federal student loans — nor will it help millions of recent graduates struggling to find jobs in the Obama economy,” House Speaker John Boehner said in a statement.

And it’s unclear how much the change might cost, Education Secretary Arne Duncan said earlier Monday at a White House press briefing.

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“We actually don’t know the cost yet,” he said, adding that it would be determined in the regulatory process.

Obama also announced a related series of actions “especially for vulnerable borrowers who may be at greater risk of defaulting on their loans.”

First, the Education Department will renegotiate contracts with federal loan servicers to strengthen financial incentives for repayment support and lower payments for servicers when loans enter delinquency or default.

And the Education and Treasury departments will also launch a pilot project to assess the effectiveness of loan counseling resources offered by colleges and the government and test new ways to reach borrowers “with the greatest risk of encountering payment difficulty.”

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Rep. Tom Petri (R-Wis.), who sits on the House Education & the Workforce Committee, said the president’s executive order simply expands an already complicated repayment option for students without making the system any clearer.

“Basing payments on income makes sense,” Petri said, “but I’m always hearing from students who need affordable payments but don’t take advantage of these options because the system is too confusing and bureaucratic.”

Acknowledging some of the confusion and borrowers’ ignorance of income-based repayment options, the Treasury and Education Departments will use partnerships with tax preparation firms H&R Block and Intuit, Inc., to spread the message about loan repayment options and education tax benefits during the tax filing process.

As expected, Obama also took this afternoon as another opportunity to ask that Congress pass the student loan debt refinancing legislation championed by Sen. Elizabeth Warren, which will be up for a vote Wednesday. The bill is unlikely to pass, but Democrats and the White House continue to push it hard as part of their “Fair Shot” election-year agenda.

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Congress needs to act to make longer term changes to student debt and higher education costs, Obama said, but he’s taking the action he can on his own because “a generation of young people can’t wait for Congress.”

He asked voters to watch how members of Congress vote and hold them accountable if they don’t support the bill.

At an estimated $1.2 trillion, federal student loan debt is hampering the economy by crippling borrowers’ ability to spend, buy homes and open businesses, Democrats have said. More than 70 percent of today’s underclassmen graduate with debt, the White House said, which averages $29,400.

Duncan said the bill would allow 25 million student loan borrowers to refinance outstanding student loans at lower interest rates and save the typical student as much as $2,000 over the life of their loan.

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That translates into $50 billion, he said.

“Think what that would mean for our economy,” Duncan said.

Leading up to a speech on the floor Monday, Sen. Lamar Alexander, ranking member of the Senate education committee, told POLITICO that he hoped the president would work with Congress to address “the real student debt problems” rather than joining in on a “political stunt” by Senate Democrats.

“This is no way to govern,” Alexander said. “The way to do it is to do what he did last year — work with Congress in a bipartisan way, to reform and simplify the student repayment program and work to reduce excess borrowing.”

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And Rep. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) said that while it’s important to address college debt, that doesn’t get at the long-term problem.

“I’m extremely enthusiastic about this effort,” Welch told POLITICO. “But there’s a lot of students who are still caught in a trap of student debt. We have to start focusing on the cost side, not just the revenue side.”

Rep. George Miller, who co-sponsored the House version of Warren’s bicameral Bank on Students Emergency Refinancing Act, said that the president’s “new initiatives will help millions of people better manage unprecedented levels of student debt,” noting that “ultimately, this is an issue that Congress must address.”

Generation Opportunity called Obama’s proposal and the Warren bill “political pandering,” and nothing more than “desperate attempts to stem the bleeding before the midterm elections” of dissatisfaction among young voters who have lost faith in Obama.

But David Tjaden, chairperson of the National Education Association’s Student Program, called Obama’s plan “a small chip at getting closer to the broader efforts that we need to make to address this dual threat of rising tuition and college student debt.”

Indeed, “this action is just one step in the right direction,” said Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers. Among those helped by the change are tens of thousands of AFT members, she said.

On Tuesday, the president will answer questions about his student loan debt and his executive action over the microblogging platform Tumblr.

“Making a degree more affordable and accessible has been a longtime priority for the president,” the White House said in a fact sheet this morning. “But he knows there is much more work to do and that’s what this week is all about.”