WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-LA), ranking member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, and Representative Virginia Foxx (R-NC), chairwoman of the House Education and the Workforce Committee, released statements following President Biden announcing he will try to illegally revive his student loan “forgiveness” scheme through the Higher Education Act, finalize an income-driven repayment (IDR) rule, and initiate an additional year-long pause on student loan repayment, a violation of the debt ceiling agreement brokered between the President and Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) earlier this June. The originally proposed IDR rule, as released on January 11th, would result in a majority of bachelor’s degree student loan borrowers not having to repay their loans, costing taxpayers an estimated $276 billion.
This comes after the U.S. Supreme Court blocked President Biden’s student debt cancelation scheme, which would have transferred up to $20,000 in student loan debt per borrower onto taxpayers, costing over $300 billion.
“President Biden’s student loan scheme is still illegal and does not forgive debt but instead transfers it from those who willingly took on the debt to those who never went to college or sacrificed to pay their student loans,” said Dr. Cassidy. “Just like Biden’s student debt transfer scheme, this IDR rule is deeply unfair to the 87 percent of Americans who currently have no student loans and will now have to foot the bill for someone else’s debt. The additional year-long pause on student loan repayment is a direct violation of the debt ceiling agreement President Biden made with Speaker McCarthy.”
“Taxpayers just got sucker punched – again – by this administration,” said Representative Foxx. “Today, President Biden announced that taxpayers will be forced to pay for the costliest regulation in our nation’s history, which will only exacerbate inflated college costs and excessive debt balances. Additionally, Biden confirmed plans to ignore the law and extend the repayment pause while also ignoring the Supreme Court and still trying to do blanket loan forgiveness. What the President is pushing is illegal, inflationary, and irresponsible.”
Earlier this year, Cassidy and Foxx rebuked President Biden’s proposed IDR rule and called on the administration to rescind the rule. Cassidy and Foxx also criticized the Biden administration for shortening the public comment period for the proposal and urged Education Secretary Miguel Cardona to extend the comment period from 30 days to 60 days.
This month, Cassidy and U.S. Senators Chuck Grassley (R-IA), John Cornyn (R-TX), Tommy Tuberville (R-AL), and Tim Scott (R-SC) unveiled their groundbreaking Lowering Education Costs and Debt Act, a package of five bills aimed at directly addressing the issues driving the skyrocketing cost of higher education and the increasing amounts of debt students take on to attend school. Later that day, the senators held a press conference to discuss the legislation.
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