Issues of the Day
Floor Speech
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. LaMALFA. Mr. Speaker, talking on the issue of a campaign being used for buying votes, the President back in his 2020 campaign promised to cancel up to $10,000 of Federal student loan debt per borrower. Of course, after his election he called for the 117th Congress to pass a bill to facilitate $10,000 in student loan forgiveness.
When he first announced his attempt by his administration to forgive the debt for those who need it most was in August of 2022. Since that announcement, the plan has been mired in pushback from the judiciary and legislative branches of the government. It isn't even seen as legal or constitutional is the charge.
The Administration's main legal argument for its ability to forgive student loan debt is that the 2003 HEROES Act, a bill that provides reservists and their families relief from making student loan payments, also allows, theoretically, the executive branch to cancel student debt for anyone they wish to. This theory has faced severe pushback from many legal experts.
The administration's argument is that because of the language of the HEROES Act of 2003, the President would somehow have the authority to unilaterally transfer up to $500 billion in student loan debt from those who are contractually required to repay it to taxpayers who never borrowed the money.
The plan would cancel up to $20,000 in Federal student loan debt for more than 40 million borrowers. Republicans and Democrats have voted for legislation that prevents the administration's bailout from taking effect.
Many Republicans see the bailout as a wealth distribution scam because it in effect forces working-class Americans to subsidize the college tuition of wealthier Americans.
Nearly all borrowers who today obtain Federal student loans do so under the William D. Ford Direct Loan Program authorized by Congress in 1993. The designation of this Federal program as a direct loan program means that when making an FDLP loan, the Federal Government disburses funds to a non-Federal borrower under a contract with the borrower that requires repayment.
Since September of last year, multiple lawsuits have resulted in the administration's scheme being put on hold. A Federal judge in Texas declared the entire plan to be unlawful. The Department of Education stopped taking applications from student loan borrowers who would have been forgiven under the plan, but the DOJ is currently appealing that decision.
The U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals rejected an appeal from the Biden administration asking to allow the scheme to continue while the Supreme Court took up the case.
Lawsuits against the Biden administration have been filed in the U.S. Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals. In a case known as Biden v. Nebraska, the U.S. Supreme Court is set to weigh in on the constitutionality of the plan. Oral arguments were heard in February. A decision has not been announced, but many legal experts expect the Court to overturn the program.
Congress itself has also reacted negatively to the plan. H.J. Res 45, a bipartisan resolution which uses the Congressional Review Act to overturn the administration's student loan forgiveness plan, was vetoed by the President earlier in June.
Republicans in Congress have likened the President's plan to a vote- buying scheme, claiming it is an attempt to buy college graduate votes in exchange for the possibility of financial reward in the form of debt forgiveness.
Concerns have been raised that if the President's scheme is successful, there is the possibility a future President may forgive large sections of the country's debts and use the Biden student loan cancellation as a precedent to justify it.
The bottom line is that for the people who took the loans out, they need to pay their own loans back. Hardworking people in this country that chose not to take student loans for college, or just went immediately to work or went into a trade or other aspects of that, should not be footing the bill for those that agreed to do it when they signed up as adults to take on these loans.
Mr. Speaker, we don't need to have an administration somehow intervene and buy votes on that and promise things that it cannot deliver for folks that really don't deserve it when they incurred the debt and were making a free decision to do so.
This is a scam, a scheme, and it needs to be prevented. I hope the Supreme Court rules that way and Congress needs to act to make sure that isn't carried out.
Mr. Speaker, let's reward the people that work hard and pay their debts and not have a giveaway program that the Federal Government does in order to buy votes.
Mr. VAN DREW. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate Mr. LaMalfa's focus on what is a very important issue and it is a fairness issue. I appreciate the time and trouble he put into that. Well done.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Source