Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts cited former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi in his Friday ruling striking down the Biden administration’s student loan forgiveness plan.
The Court ruled 6-3 that the Department of Education could not forgive up to $20,000 in student loan debt held by some borrowers. In announcing the scheme, President Joe Biden cited a provision of the 2003 HEROES Act as giving him the authority to do so. Pelosi had previously said that Biden could not forgive the loans himself, although she later cheered the move.
“People think that the President of the United States has the power for debt forgiveness. He does not. He can postpone. He can delay. But he does not have that power. That has to be an act of Congress,” Pelosi said in a 2021 press conference. “The President can’t do it. So that’s not even a discussion. Not everybody realizes that. But the President can only postpone, delay, but not forgive.”
“In light of the sweeping and unprecedented impact of the Secretary’s loan forgiveness program, it would seem more accurate to describe the program as being in the ‘wheelhouse’ of the House and Senate Committees on Appropriations,” Roberts agreed.
Supreme Court cites then-Dem Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s 2021 view that the President lacks the power to unilaterally cancel debt pic.twitter.com/709PcKqBM1
— Zaid Jilani (@ZaidJilani) June 30, 2023
President Donald Trump began the student loan payment moratorium at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, and Biden repeatedly extended it. The Fiscal Responsibility Act, which raised the debt ceiling into 2025, ends the moratorium at the end of August. (RELATED: Senate Votes To Overturn Biden’s Student Loan Giveaway)
Pelosi has not yet released a statement on the ruling, and her office did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller’s request for comment on the matter.