Senate Republicans initiated a legislative
challenge to the Biden administration’s student loan cancellation program on
Monday – the latest in a series of objections that stand to upend what
otherwise would be the signature education achievement of the president in his
early tenure.
Sen. Bill Cassidy, Louisiana Republican and
ranking member of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee,
introduced a resolution backed by 37 of his GOP colleagues that would eliminate
the cancellation plan and also end the pause currently in place on federal
student loan payments and accumulating interest.
The legislative attack comes after the
Government Accountability Office concluded earlier this month that the student
loan cancelation plan is subject to what’s known as the Congressional Review
Act. And the support of Cassidy’s caucus, including Senate Minority Leader
Mitch McConnell, gives him more than the 30 votes needed to force a vote on the
resolution.
“President Biden is not forgiving debt, he
is shifting the burden of student loans off of the borrowers who willingly took
on their debt and placing it onto those who chose to not go to college or
already fulfilled their commitment to pay off their loans,” Cassidy said in a
statement on Monday. “It is extremely unfair to punish these Americans, forcing
them to pay the bill for these irresponsible and unfair student loan schemes.”
All votes under the Congressional Review
Act are simple majority votes, but that may prove difficult for Senate
Republicans to garner – even if some moderate Democrats privately grumbled
about the president’s plan when he announced it in August.
In the Republican-controlled House, where
prospects of passage are much greater, Rep. Bob Good, Virginia Republican,
introduced the companion resolution with the support of Rep. Virginia Foxx,
North Carolina Republican and chairperson of the Committee on Education and the
Workforce.
“President Biden’s so-called student loan
forgiveness programs do not make the debt go away, but merely transfer the
costs from student loan borrowers onto taxpayers to the tune of hundreds of
billions of dollars,” Good said in a statement. “Congress should stop these
unilateral actions, and I am proud to lead the fight in the House to hold
President Biden accountable for his reckless, unfair, and unlawful student loan
proposal.”
