WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-LA), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP), joined U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) and 41 Senate colleagues in filing an amicus brief in Biden v. Nebraska and Department of Education v. Brown challenging the Biden administration’s student loan forgiveness program. Specifically, they argue that the student loan program is a clear overreach of executive power and circumvents the authority of Congress.
“President Biden’s student loan schemes do not ‘forgive’ student debt, but transfers it onto Americans who chose not to go to college or worked hard to pay off their loans,” said Dr. Cassidy. “These policies are a clear overreach of President Biden’s authority and unconstitutional.”
Background
According to Congressional Budget Office (CBO), President Biden’s student loan cancellation policy before the Supreme Court is estimated to cost taxpayers $400 billion. This is on top of the student loan repayment pause, that has been extended six times under the Biden administration, that has so far cost taxpayers $195 billion.
Last week, Cassidy and Representative Virginia Foxx (R-NC), Chairwoman of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, rebukedthe administration’s proposed rule on Income Driven Repayment that would eliminate the expectation for these borrowers to pay back even the principal on their loans and fundamentally break our higher education financing system. The administration estimates the plan will cost taxpayers at least $138 billion over the next ten years, but a non-partisan student loan expert has estimated that the true cost could be $1 trillion.
Click here to read the full amicus brief.