WASHINGTON – Education and the Workforce Committee Chairwoman Virginia Foxx (R-NC) called on the Biden-Harris administration’s Department of Education to withdraw its proposed rule to "cancel" borrowers’ student loans based on "hardships."
In a letter to Education Secretary Miguel Cardona, Foxx outlines the illegality of this latest debt transfer scheme.
"The administration chose to disregard the rule of law again and set course to concoct new schemes to transfer student debt from those who took on the responsibility of a loan agreement to the 87 percent of Americans who never attended college or paid off their loans,"Foxx writes.
The letter states: "The proposed rule uses the term 'hardship' with great ambiguity and proposes to enact a regulation using a 17-factor artificial intelligence data model to determine who automatically receives loan forgiveness. Further, it also proposes to open an application process for borrowers to apply for forgiveness due to a hardship by making the Department the arbiter of borrowers’ subjective life circumstances. Like the Department’s two other forgiveness schemes that are under court injunctions, this fourth scheme is likely to face a similar fate for exceeding the Secretary’s authority."
Citing omission of the word "hardship" from Section 432 of the Higher Education Act of 1965 as well as the recent overturning of the Chevron doctrine, Foxx argues that the proposed rulemaking is an example of massive executive overreach that will cost taxpayers more than $100 billion.
"This proposal to allow the Secretary unchecked power to define hardship and choose between borrowers' claims is one of many examples of what is wrong in Washington," the letter continues. "This latest scheme is merely a Band-Aid that forces taxpayers to shoulder the responsibility of paying off someone else’s debt. If this administration spent half as much time working to address the root causes of our broken student loan system as peddling this illegal free college agenda, college costs would be lower, the student loan repayment process would be simpler, and students and families would have been able to fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid on time."
