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The U.S. Senate decided Wednesday to proceed with a vote on a House resolution that would repeal President Joe Biden’s plan for mass student debt relief.
The House passed the bill along party lines last week, although two Democrats voted with GOP lawmakers.
Biden’s plan, which would forgive up to $20,000 in student loans for Americans with individual incomes of less than $125,000, is already on hold because of two challenges now in the hands of the Supreme Court. The court typically issues its decisions by the end of June.
Acting before Supreme Court ruling,House votes to block Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan
Wednesday’s vote was mostly procedural, but it could forecast whether the GOP effort to block Biden’s plan will make it out of Congress before the Supreme Court issues its decision. It was unclear whether enough Democrats, who control the Senate, would sign on to the measure to clear the chamber. Some of the party’s more moderate members, including Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada, have questioned the idea of broad relief.
Manchin voted Wednesday to advance the resolution for a full Senate vote, as did Democrat-turned-Independent Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona and Democrat Jon Tester of Montana. Cortez Masto did not. It advanced 51-46.
The legislation would nullify various recent Biden-led efforts at relief, including the latest extension to the pause on student loan payments. The payments, which have been on pause since the onset of the pandemic under former President Donald Trump, are already set to resume in the coming months, according to the Education Department itself. But Republicans have engaged in multiple strategies to end the moratorium, including as part of a bill Biden negotiated with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy to raise the nation’s debt ceiling.
Student debt relief blocked,potentially hurting Black and Latino families the most
The White House has already stated it would veto the legislation. “This resolution is an unprecedented attempt to undercut our historic economic recovery and would deprive more than 40 million hard-working Americans of much-needed student debt relief,” the White House said.
About 26 million people applied for Biden’s mass relief program before the lawsuits froze it from proceeding. Of those, 16 million were approved to have a portion, or depending on their balance, all their debt erased.
Republicans: Biden’s plan ‘irresponsible’ and ‘unfair’
Republicans have denounced Biden’s plan as a bailout for people who don’t deserve it, at the expense of working-class Americans who lack college degrees or people who borrowed money and already repaid their debts.
In an opinion piece for Fox News this week, Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, who has been outspoken about his opposition to loan forgiveness, again criticized it.
“It is important to note his student debt ‘forgiveness’ plan does not actually forgive or cancel debt. It only transfers the burden from those who willingly chose to take out debt to attend college to those who chose not to go to college or already worked to pay off their loans,” Cassidy wrote. “Making these taxpayers responsible for the debts of others is as irresponsible as it is unfair.”
Would the bill require backpay?
But borrowers and advocates say it’s the resolution that’s irresponsible and unfair.
‘Massive new program’:Supreme Court majority signals skepticism over Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan
Critics worry that nullifying those efforts could mean backpay. “This measure not only repeals the payment pause, it forces many borrowers to make retroactive payments as well,” said Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., on Wednesday morning.
A recent analysis by the Student Borrower Protection Center and American Federation of Teachers even suggests it could force borrowers who’ve just had their loans cleared back into debt. The analysis found that more than 250,000 public service workers who had their loans forgiven at some point between September 2022 and March 2023 could have their debt reinstated.
“It’s an immoral clawback of the absolute worst kind,” AFT President Randi Weingarten said in a statement.
Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., has rejected claims that the resolution would require certain borrowers to retroactively make payments during the period covered. “Nowhere in this resolution does it mandate backpay,” she said last week. “It is prospective, not retrospective. If anything, it will be Secretary Cardona’s decision to enact backpay.”
Americans are split on debt forgivenessas Supreme Court gears up to rule on student loan cases.
Contact Alia Wong at (202) 507-2256 or awong@usatoday.com. Follow her on Twitter at @aliaemily.
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