Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan faces another obstacle: Congress

The approval of President Joe Biden’s plan to transfer $400 billion student debt faces another hurdle in the form of congressional Republicans who are looking to retract both the student loan cancellation plan and the payment pause he extended through August end. These lawmakers have called it unilateral, unlawful, and unwise. Senator Bill Cassidy, a ranking member of the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, argued, “President Biden is not forgiving debt, he is shifting the burden of student loans off of the borrowers, forcing them to pay the bill for these unfair and irresponsible student loan schemes.”

Biden had announced the student loans plan in August 2021, fulfilling his campaign promise and energizing young voters ahead of the 2022 midterm elections. However, the plan has faced multiple problems since then, leaving it in legal and legislative limbo and causing both political parties to point fingers at each other over the issue.

At least seven different lawsuits were filed in the weeks after the announcement, all alleging that the plan was illegal. A judge blocked it just two days after Election Day, causing accusations that the Biden administration had intentionally misled 43 million borrowers, knowing they’d never have to fulfill their promise. The case eventually wound up before the Supreme Court whose conservative majority appeared skeptical of the plan despite protests outside the hearings.

Since full cancellation now appears unlikely, efforts have emerged to tackle the repayment pause. Then-President Donald Trump instituted the pause in March 2020 along with a host of other COVID-19-related policies that are only expiring now. Trump extended the pause twice before leaving office, and Biden has extended it six more times. The pause alone is expected to cost taxpayers $195 billion before it expires. Student loans refinancer, SoFi Bank, sued the Biden administration last month, seeking to end the pause, and now members of Congress are working to end it as well.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, a Republican, successfully moved legislation that demanded Biden to declassify intelligence on Covid-19 origins, along with a bill that ended the national emergency over the pandemic. Republicans now have a surprising amount of success in Congress even though they are in the minority.

Polling shows the public is nearly as divided over the issue as are their political leaders. At the exit of an NBC News poll, 50% of people approved of Biden’s plan, while 47% disapproved.

However, any additional pressure on the administration over the issue could put the White House in a tight corner, especially if it can’t deliver.