In a recent release from the Biden administration, Biden chose to double down on his plan to go through with the cancellation of student debt for multiple millions of borrowers in the wake of a federal judge attempting to toss out the new program.
Mark Pittman, a U.S. District Judge out of the Northern District of Texas proclaimed that the entire plan for debt cancellation was illegal in the wake of a lawsuit being filed by the Job Creators Network Foundation’s Legal Action Fund. The plan in question would seek to eliminate roughly $10,000 in debt for all borrowers making less than $125,000 per year and $20,000 for all those who went to college utilizing Pell Grants.
In a recent statement, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre claimed that the appeal process had already been started. “The President and this administration are determined to help working and middle-class Americans get back on their feet, while our opponents — backed by extreme Republican special interests — sued to block millions of Americans from getting much-needed relief,” she commented. “We will never stop fighting for hardworking Americans most in need — no matter how many roadblocks our opponents and special interests try to put in our way.”
The portal set up for the Department of Education was hit with applications from well over 26 million Americans attempting to utilize the loan cancellation, of which a total of 16 million have already been approved. Jean-Pierre went on to state that the agency will “hold onto their information so it can quickly process their relief once we prevail in court.”
The complaint from the conservative advocacy group, Job Creators Network Foundation, claims that the policy of student loan elimination went against the notice-and-comment processes mandated by the Administrative Procedure Act. Other groups, which included a number of conservative state attorneys general, have also chosen to issue suits about the recent cancellation efforts.
Elaine Parker, the president of the Job Creators Network Foundation, rejoiced at the ruling from the judge in a release. “The court has correctly ruled in favor of our motion and deemed the Biden student loan program illegal,” she stated. “The judge criticized the Biden administration program, calling it ‘one of the largest exercises of legislative power without congressional authority in the history of the United States.’ This ruling protects the rule of law which requires all Americans to have their voices heard by their federal government.”
The White House also placed another extension on the current pause placed on federal student loan repayments until January 2024 and will allow borrowers holding undergraduate loans to put a cap on their payments of roughly %5 of their total monthly income. One current estimate from the Congressional Budget Office claimed that the overall cost for the plan could extend up to $400 billion, to go along with an additional $20 billion caused by the necessary pause on repayments.
“This attempted illegal student loan bailout would have done nothing to address the root cause of unaffordable tuition: greedy and bloated colleges that raise tuition far more than inflation year after year while sitting on $700 billion in endowments,” stated Parker. “We hope that the court’s decision today will lay the groundwork for real solutions to the student loan crisis.”