Press Releases

WASHINGTON – Today, Education and the Workforce Committee Chairwoman Virginia Foxx (R-NC) and Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Ranking Member Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-LA), released statements following President Biden announcing he will try to revive illegally his student loan “forgiveness” scheme through the Higher Education Act, finalize an income-driven repayment (IDR) rule, and initiate an additional year-long pause on student loan repayment, a violation of the debt ceiling agreement brokered between the President and Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) earlier this June. The originally proposed IDR rule, as released on January 11th, would result in a majority of bachelor’s degree student loan borrowers not having to repay their loans, costing taxpayers an estimated $276 billion.

This comes after the U.S. Supreme Court blocked President Biden’s student debt cancelation scheme, which would have transferred up to $20,000 in student loan debt per borrower onto taxpayers, costing over $300 billion.
 
“Taxpayers just got sucker punched – again – by this administration,” said Chairwoman Foxx. “Today, President Biden announced that taxpayers will be forced to pay for the costliest regulation in our nation’s history, which will only exacerbate inflated college costs and excessive debt balances. Additionally, Biden confirmed plans to ignore the law and extend the repayment pause while also ignoring the Supreme Court and still trying to do blanket loan forgiveness. What the President is pushing is illegal, inflationary, and irresponsible.”

“President Biden’s student loan schemes do not forgive debt but instead transfer it from those who willingly took on the debt onto those who never went to college or sacrificed to pay their student loans,” said Dr. Cassidy. “Just like Biden’s student debt transfer scheme, this IDR rule is deeply unfair to the 87 percent of Americans who currently have no student loans and will now have to foot the bill for someone else’s debt.”
 
Earlier this year, Foxx and Cassidy rebuked President Biden’s proposed IDR rule and called on the administration to rescind the rule. Foxx and Cassidy also criticized the Biden administration for shortening the public comment period for the proposal and urged Education Secretary Miguel Cardona to extend the comment period from 30 days to 60 days.
 
This month, Reps. Owens, McClain, and Foxx introduced the Federal Assistance to Initiate Repayment (FAIR) Act, which provides targeted relief to those in need without exploiting taxpayers and provides a fair, responsible path back to repayment for 40 million borrowers.