A group of 126 House Republicans filed an amicus brief to the Supreme Court for the case challenging President Joe Biden’s student loan forgiveness program.
The group, led by Education and Workforce Committee Chairwoman Virginia Foxx (R-NC), slammed the Biden administration for attempting to use the Higher Education Relief Opportunities for Students, or HEROES, Act to give arbitrary loan forgiveness.
BOEHNER TELLS SUPREME COURT BIDEN CAN’T FORGIVE STUDENT LOAN DEBT UNDER HIS HEROES ACT
“The Biden administration’s student loan bailout is a political gambit engineered by special interest groups; abusing the HEROES Act for such a ploy is shameful. Moreover, this administration is bypassing Congress, which is elected by the American people to protect their interests. Congress is the only body with the authority to enact sweeping and fundamental changes of this nature, and it is ludicrous for President Biden to assume he can simply bypass the will of the American people,” Foxx said in a statement.
The Biden administration announced a program last year that would cancel up to $10,000 in federal student loans and up to $20,000 for Pell Grant recipients. The requirement to be eligible for the loan forgiveness would be a yearly income of less than $125,000.
The administration argues it has the legal authority to forgive the loans based on the HEROES Act and the COVID-19 pandemic. Six states sued the administration over the program.
Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-SC), who also signed on to the brief, said the program “oversteps the authority of Congress” and “exploits” the HEROES Act.
“The Biden Administration does not have the authority to unilaterally ‘forgive’ student loan debt across the board, and attempting to do so is nothing more than a political maneuver. This exploits the original intention of the HEROES Act of 2003, oversteps the authority of Congress, undermines the will of the American people, and would send the country further into a debt spiral. The Court should invalidate the Secretary of Education’s sweeping student loan forgiveness program since it trespasses on Congressional authority and violates the separation of powers,” Duncan said in a statement.
BOEHNER TELLS SUPREME COURT BIDEN CAN’T FORGIVE STUDENT LOAN DEBT UNDER HIS HEROES ACT
Another amicus brief filed Friday came from the lawmakers instrumental to the HEROES Act being passed in 2003. That brief argues the members of Congress at the time the law was passed “did not, and surely could not, have ever expected the Act to be misused and distorted by the Department in the policy now before this Court.”
The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear an additional case brought against the Biden administration’s program later this month. The program is currently halted pending legal proceedings.
