Eleven Republican-led states filed a federal lawsuit Thursday against President Joe Biden’s signature student loan repayment plan, an income-driven option that brought millions of borrowers’ monthly amounts to $0.
The Saving on a Valuable Education program, known as SAVE, was launched last fall. It’s already led to the cancelation of balances for tens of thousands of participants who’d been paying for a decade and borrowed less than $12,000.
The suit – filed in district court in Kansas by the state’s attorney general and those in Nebraska, Iowa, Texas, Alabama, Alaska, Idaho, Louisiana, Montana, South Carolina and Utah – argues the administration is using the plan as a means of providing mass student loan debt forgiveness. Biden’s original plan for broad relief was struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court last year. After conservative justices argued Biden was overstepping his executive authority, the president vowed to find a Plan B. The states in this case say he’s doing the same with SAVE.
It was an expected move: The lawsuit came a month after Kansas’ attorney general, Kris Kobach, promised he would block the plan. His state was among those that successfully argued in the nation’s highest court in the first student loan relief case. Biden’s initial proposal would have canceled up to $20,000 in student loan debt for scores of borrowers.
“I do think we will win this time just like we won last time,” Kobach said on Fox Business a few weeks ago. “Hopefully losing twice will cause the president to back off on this.”
Lawsuits:Biden student loan debt forgiveness plan for 804,000 borrowers faces new legal challenge
An Education Department spokesperson said while the agency does not comment on pending litigation, Congress gave the president the power to define the terms of income-driven repayment plans in the ‘90s.
“The Biden-Harris Administration won’t stop fighting to provide support and relief to borrowers across the country,” the spokesperson said, “no matter how many times Republican elected officials try to stop us.”
Senate Democrats on Wednesday announced a bill to codify the specific provisions of the SAVE plan into federal law – a measure that would shield the program from a potential Trump presidency.
Opponents say mass forgiveness comes at an immense cost to taxpayers, many of whom chose not to attend college themselves. Estimates suggest SAVE will cost as much as $230 billion over the next 10 years.
Supporters, however, say Biden is taking bold steps to address a runaway crisis that previous presidents shied away from. At a campaign event in February, Biden was introduced by Jessica Saint-Paul, a physician’s assistant in Los Angeles, who said enrolling in the SAVE plan helped her get nearly $150,000 in student loans forgiven. She had spent nearly two decades trying, unsuccessfully, to pay the debt down.
“That’s life-changing,” she said.
SAVE:Biden cancels $1.2B in student loan debt for borrowers on income-driven repayment plan
As of this last week, the Biden administration has approved relief totaling almost $144 billion for 4 million Americans.
The Education Department, separately, is working to advance a different plan that would bring relief to more targeted groups of borrowers. That proposal is currently under regulatory review and will soon be released for public comment.
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