Seven Republican attorneys general filed a lawsuit Tuesday against President Joe Biden’s administration over a new student loan forgiveness plan rolled out this week.
Biden announced Monday that he was rolling out the plan, which would cancel a minimum of $5,000 for over 10 million Americans with student loans, despite the Supreme Court striking down Biden’s previous initiative in June 2023. Republican Attorney General Andrew Bailey of Missouri filed a lawsuit alongside Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, North Dakota, Ohio and Oklahoma, arguing that the president’s plan was unconstitutional and “illegal.”
“With the stroke of his pen, Joe Biden is attempting to saddle working Missourians with a half trillion dollars in college debt. The United States Constitution makes clear that the President lacks the authority to unilaterally ‘cancel’ student loan debt for millions of Americans without express permission from Congress,” Bailey said in a press release. “The President does not get to thwart the Constitution when it suits his political agenda. I’m filing suit to halt his brazen attempt to curry favor with some citizens by forcing others to shoulder their debts. The Constitution will continue to mean something as long as I’m Attorney General.”
The Constitution is clear: Congress has the power of the purse, not the President.
Joe Biden cannot unilaterally “cancel” hundreds of millions of dollars in student loan debt and force everyday Americans to pick up the tab.
— Attorney General Andrew Bailey (@AGAndrewBailey) April 9, 2024
The president’s new plan focuses on low-and-middle income Americans and those who attended a “low-financial-value” institution, who will now be able to enroll in an “income-driven repayment plan.” The plan has been criticized for ignoring the Supreme Court’s 2023 decision that struck down the president’s unilateral forgiveness of student debt through the Department of Education’s emergency authority.
The lawsuit, citing the Supreme Court ruling, argues that Biden and his administration are attempting “to sidestep the Constitution” and “impose drastic, costly policy changes on the American people without their consent.”
“Yet again, the President is unilaterally trying to impose an extraordinarily expensive and controversial policy that he could not get through Congress,” the lawsuit reads.
The president announced in March that he was canceling almost $6 billion in student loan debt for teachers, nurses and firefighters, among others through Public Service Loan Forgiveness. The administration has canceled student debt for roughly four million Americans to the tune of $146 billion through executive actions.
The White House and the Department of Education did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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