by - House Republicans continue to criticize Biden’s plans to ease student debt.
- They said Americans would be billed an “untold amount” from proposed reforms to repayment plans.
- As large-scale debt relief continues to stagnate in court, Biden has moved forward with other targeted reforms for debtors.
Even as President Joe Biden’s sweeping student loan forgiveness plan has been delayed in court, some Republican lawmakers are slamming other reforms for borrowers.
On Monday, Republicans on the House education committee published a blog post alleging that Biden “continued to make false promises to students” after his statement to forgive student debt of up to $20,000 for federal debtors was blocked by two separate federal courts.
Lawmakers wrote that while far-reaching aid is the most debated topic, other policies Biden proposed and implemented, such as extending the student loan payment pause and reforming student loan repayment programs, would fill taxpayers with a bill.
“There is an untold amount that is about to be billed to the American people,” they wrote. They cited Biden’s new revenue-driven repayment plan. instead of 20
“The Biden administration is after mass student loan cancellation and wants to use your money to pay off,” they continued in their blog post. “By doing so, he abuses executive power and subverts the Constitutional process of how laws are written and federal bills are paid.”
The question of authority has been much debated. Biden’s broad debt relief plan was blocked in court because conservative-backed lawsuits claimed it overstepped his authority using the 2003 HEROES Act, which gives the Minister of Education the ability to waive or change student loan balances in connection with a national emergency. like COVID-19.
Republicans have long been critical of the costs accompanying the extension of the student loan payment pause, first implemented under former President Donald Trump, and Biden has extended it for the sixth time until June 30, or once the lawsuits challenging the compensation are resolved – whichever. first. Regarding this broad one-time aid, the Congressional Budget Office estimated in September that the plan would cost $400 billion, but that figure pales in comparison to other major expenditures, such as the defense budget, which costs $700 billion, Insider previously reported. 2022.
The Biden administration has even voiced concerns about the cost of continuing aid, and in a legal filing it states that a student loan payment pause is not ideal because of the cost it will incur. But the administration and Democratic lawmakers have made it clear that any student debt relief is worth the cost to help Americans recover from the epidemic and try to reform a student loan industry that has kept borrowers from getting help for years.
“President Biden has the legal authority to cancel student debt—President Obama and President Trump have exercised the same authority,” Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren said. Wrote on Twitter last week. “The sooner we defeat the baseless legal actions of GOP officials, the sooner we can get student debt relief to hardworking Americans.”
