when someone who has been harmed in a concrete way by that action files a lawsuit," says Abby Shafroth, director of the Student Loan Borrower Assistance Project at the National Consumer Law Center. The problem for Brnovich, and anyone else hoping to legally block Biden's plan, boils down to one word: standing. when someone who has been harmed in a concrete way by that action files a lawsuit. "If Joe Biden or the Biden administration implement a policy that is unconstitutional, we will sue him," Arizona's Mark Brnovich told NPR before he did just that. Opponents of Biden's debt relief plan have been clear: They think it is an illegal abuse of power.Ĭongress controls government spending, they argue, and the president can't simply erase hundreds of billions of dollars in student loan debt without going through lawmakers. "It's the same statute that the previous administration used and that we've used, that we are now using, for this action." It has not been found improper by a court," Bharat Ramamurti, deputy director of the National Economic Council, said of the Trump-initiated payment pause after Biden's announcement. The Biden administration argues, if Republicans feel this debt relief is an abuse of power, why didn't they oppose President Trump's use of the same authority in 2020? President Biden not only extended the payment freeze through December but, citing the same authority, announced he would go even further, canceling up to $10,000 in student loan debt for any borrower who earns less than $125,000 a year, and up to $20,000 for any borrower who meets that income requirement and received a Pell Grant to attend college. secretary of education: the authority "to alleviate the hardship that federal student loan recipients may suffer as a result of national emergencies," according to the Justice Department's memo.įast-forward two decades to a very different national emergency: the COVID-19 pandemic.Įarly in the pandemic, the Trump administration used this same HEROES Act authority to freeze payments and interest accrual on federal student loans – helping many borrowers who, because of COVID's crippling effect on the economy, would have struggled to keep up. The act gave an incredible power to the U.S. Justice Department cited the Higher Education Relief Opportunities For Students Act, or HEROES Act, which President George W. In a memo defending Biden's plan, the U.S. The Biden administration's legal defense of student debt relief And other conservative politicians, interest groups and attorneys are likely to file additional suits soon. Brnovich's lawsuit is just the third this week. In short, legal opposition to Biden's debt relief plan has become a team effort. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., said in a recent speech. "I can assure you that my Republican colleagues and I will fight to the bitter end against this illegal, abusive use of the executive pen," Rep. On Thursday, Brnovich made good on that promise, suing to block Biden's plan. And if he does something unconstitutional, hell yeah, I'm going to hold him accountable," Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich told NPR in an interview. The antipathy many conservatives feel toward President Biden's student debt relief plan, which the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office recently estimated will cost roughly $400 billion, is as vivid as many borrowers' enthusiasm for it.
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