130 Republican lawmakers demand Biden end 'reckless' student loan bailouts
A group of Republican lawmakers urged the Education Department in a letter to nix its grand-scale bailout, which would provide even greater student debt relief than an earlier attempt struck down by the Supreme Court.
The election year battle over student loan debt continues to escalate. The Biden administration last week announced its latest cancellation attempt as more than 120 Republican lawmakers urged the Department of Education to rescind its earlier attempts.
The latest proposal would cancel another $7.7 billion in loans for 160,000 borrowers. This relief would go to borrowers in three categories who hit certain milestones that make them eligible for cancellation:
- 54,000 borrowers who are enrolled in Biden’s new income-driven repayment plan
- 39,000 enrolled in earlier income-driven plans; and
- About 67,000 who are eligible through the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program.
“From day one of my administration, I promised to fight to ensure higher education is a ticket to the middle class, not a barrier to opportunity,” President Joe Biden said in a statement. “I will never stop working to cancel student debt, no matter how many times Republican-elected officials try to stop us.”
Republican legislators encouraged the administration to do just that in a letter to Education Secretary Miguel Cardona. They argued that the regulatory proposals are “the latest in a string of reckless attempts” to transfer student loan debt onto people who didn’t take out loans for college or already paid them off.
“The administration continues to use borrowers as political pawns, knowing full well these proposed actions are illegal,” the letter said. “The Supreme Court has made it abundantly clear that there is zero authority to write off federal student loans en masse last June when the department’s ‘Plan A’ was ruled unconstitutional.”
The administration’s initial plan unsuccessfully cited a 9/11-era law that allows the education secretary to modify student loan programs during emergencies. This time, the Education Department seeks to implement debt relief proposals through the Higher Education Act. The plan would waive accrued interest for borrowers who owe more than they initially took out and wipe out debts for those who entered repayment about 20 years ago or earlier. It also would provide debt relief for borrowers who attended colleges that didn’t provide them with “sufficient financial value,” such as if they misled students. And it would cancel loans for borrowers who qualify for forgiveness under separate department programs but haven’t applied.
The administration estimated that the proposal would fully clear student loan debts for more than four million borrowers; provide at least $5,000 worth of debt relief for more than 10 million borrowers; and wipe away accrued interest for 23 million. However, Republican lawmakers argued that the estimated price tag is too high. A recent Penn Wharton analysis, for example, predicted the plan’s cost would top $84 billion.
Related: Student loan ‘bailouts’: 17 states file 2 lawsuits to block Biden’s SAVE plan
“This is even broader than the department’s first attempt at an estimated price tag of $147 billion, and taxpayers are being forced to take on the debt of nearly 28 million borrowers,” according the group of lawmakers led by Rep. Virgina Foxx, R-N.C., and Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La. Republicans ranging from Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, in the party’s middle to Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., on the right signed the letter.