Republican Virginia Rep. Bob Good will introduce a Congressional Review Act resolution to roll back the Biden administration’s student loan forgiveness scheme.
President Joe Biden announced in August 2022 that the Department of Education would permanently forgive up to $10,000 in student loans for individuals making up to $125,000 a year, and up to $20,000 for individuals who received Pell grants. The Supreme Court is currently hearing a challenge to the scheme, although some legal experts have suggested that the plaintiffs do not have standing to challenge it. (RELATED: Biden Admin Using Post-9/11 Law As Legal Basis For Canceling Student Debt)
Under the Congressional Review Act, Congress may pass resolutions of disapproval to block executive orders, although the resolutions are subject to presidential veto. Congress has already passed one resolution under the act targeting the Labor Department’s environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investing rule, although Biden vetoed it. Three Republican senators introduced a companion resolution to Good’s on March 17.
“The Biden Administration’s student loan transfer scheme would egregiously redistribute the cost of this debt from the borrower onto the back of every American taxpayer. This illegal, unconstitutional, and unauthorized, executive action puts us further in debt as a nation and will drive already-expensive college costs even higher. My Congressional Review Act resolution seeks to undo this disastrous plan,” Good said in a statement to the Daily Caller.
Read the resolution here:
Student Loan CRA Text_Rep Good by Michael Ginsberg on Scribd
The Supreme Court is considering a challenge to the forgiveness plan brought by Missouri and five other states. The Biden administration has argued that the states do not have standing to sue.
The student loan forgiveness plan could cost taxpayers as much as $361 billion over 10 years, according to an analysis by the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. The federal government and American taxpayers hold nearly $1.76 trillion in student debt, according to the Federal Reserve, 92% of all student debt. About half of student loan debt is held by individuals pursuing or holding graduate degrees, despite the fact that graduate degree-holders constitute only one-quarter of borrowers.
The CARES Act paused student loan payments in March 2020, and the Trump administration ordered two more pauses through January 2021. Biden has ordered five pauses in addition to the $10,000 forgiveness.