Biden Administration Asks Supreme Court to Allow Student-Debt ‘Forgiveness’ Order to Take Effect
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The Biden administration on Friday petitioned the Supreme Court to allow the implementation of its student-debt “forgiveness” plan, which has been tied up in lower courts since President Joe Biden issued the executive order in October.
“Because borrowers who default on their student loans face severe financial consequences — including wage garnishment, long-term credit damage, and ineligibility for federal benefits — Congress specifically authorized the Secretary to waive or modify any applicable statutory or regulatory provision as he deems necessary to ensure that borrowers affected by a national emergency are not worse off in relation to their student loans,” Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar wrote in a filing.
Without congressional authorization, Biden pledged to erase $10,000 in student loans for individuals with incomes below $125,000 or household incomes below $250,000. His plan would also relieve Pell Grant recipients of $20,000 in debt.
The administration claims the Higher Education Relief Opportunities for Students Act of 2003, or the HEROES Act, empowers it to enact the program, exempted from required procedure, including a notice-and-comment period.
The program has been in limbo since lower courts temporarily blocked it while they consider applications for injunctions against the order.
In late October, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit ordered the Biden administration to refrain from discharging any student-loan debt while it considered an application for an injunction against the program requested by six states. Last week, a federal judge in Texas suspended enforcement of the plan in response to a lawsuit from the Job Creators Network Foundation (JCNF).
Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar called the ruling from the federal appeals court an “erroneous injunction” that “leaves millions of economically vulnerable borrowers in limbo, uncertain about the size of their debt and unable to make financial decisions with an accurate understanding of their future repayment obligations.”
But Judge Mark Pittman said the plan abused constitutional authority vested in the the executive and legislature, and argued it was not subjected to the standard regulatory processes.
“No one can plausibly deny that it is either one of the largest delegations of legislative power to the executive branch, or one of the largest exercises of legislative power without congressional authority in the history of the United States,” he said in his opinion.
