A federal judge in Texas struck down President Biden’s student debt relief program in the most recent legal blow to his plan to forgive a whole bunch of thousands and thousands of dollars in unpaid loans.
Judge Mark. T. Pittman, of the US District Court for the Northern District of Texas, ruled Thursday that Biden doesn’t have “clear congressional authorization to create a $400 billion student loan forgiveness program.”
The Biden Administration invoked emergency powers to authorize this system without congressional approval following a pressure campaign from leftist Democrats who argued that the COVID-19 pandemic gave them the best to cancel student debt.
The Education Department cited its legal authority to cancel debts in a 2003 law — The HEROES Act — which supplies the manager branch broad powers to “alleviate the hardship that federal student loan recipients may suffer because of this of national emergencies” just like the COVID-19 pandemic, in keeping with a Justice Department opinion.
Pittman ruled Thursday that the HEROES Act doesn’t give Biden the authority to cancel student debt for thousands and thousands of Americans, and such a sweeping measure would require congressional approval.
“On this case, the HEROES Act — a law to supply loan assistance to military personnel defending our nation — doesn’t provide the manager branch clear congressional authorization to create a $400 billion student loan forgiveness program. The Program is thus an unconstitutional exercise of Congress’s legislative power and should be vacated,” Pittman, who was nominated by former President Donald Trump in 2017, wrote.
Under Biden’s plan, borrowers are eligible for forgiveness of as much as $10,000 in federally owned student debt in the event that they have an annual income under $125,000. Pell Grant recipients are eligible for one more $10,000 in forgiveness.
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated that Biden’s plan would cost taxpayers $400 billion, with the extra deferment of payments and interest accrual on student loans through the top of 2022 costing taxpayers one other $20 billion.
Attorneys general from six Republican states — Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska and South Carolina — sued the Biden administration in September over the debt cancellation program, accusing the White House of overstepping its executive power.
The eighth US Circuit Court of Appeals sided with the states, and issued an order in October prohibiting the Biden administration “from discharging any student loan debt under the Cancellation program” until court proceedings for an injunction are accomplished.
Last week, Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Bryant denied a second emergency application to dam the loan forgiveness plan from going into effect — this one brought by two men from Indiana who claimed this system would cause them irreparable harm because of a burdensome state tax bill.
The suit had been rejected by an Indiana judge on the grounds that the 2 couldn’t prove their tax burden was “traceable” to Biden’s loan cancellation program.
On Oct. 20, Barrett rejected a separate request from the Brown County (Wis.) Taxpayers Association to dam this system on the grounds that it could cost taxpayers billions of dollars.
In each cases, Barrett neither commented on the filing, asked the Justice Department to reply, nor referred the matter to her other colleagues.
A federal judge in Texas struck down President Biden’s student debt relief program in the most recent legal blow to his plan to forgive a whole bunch of thousands and thousands of dollars in unpaid loans.
Judge Mark. T. Pittman, of the US District Court for the Northern District of Texas, ruled Thursday that Biden doesn’t have “clear congressional authorization to create a $400 billion student loan forgiveness program.”
The Biden Administration invoked emergency powers to authorize this system without congressional approval following a pressure campaign from leftist Democrats who argued that the COVID-19 pandemic gave them the best to cancel student debt.
The Education Department cited its legal authority to cancel debts in a 2003 law — The HEROES Act — which supplies the manager branch broad powers to “alleviate the hardship that federal student loan recipients may suffer because of this of national emergencies” just like the COVID-19 pandemic, in keeping with a Justice Department opinion.
Pittman ruled Thursday that the HEROES Act doesn’t give Biden the authority to cancel student debt for thousands and thousands of Americans, and such a sweeping measure would require congressional approval.
“On this case, the HEROES Act — a law to supply loan assistance to military personnel defending our nation — doesn’t provide the manager branch clear congressional authorization to create a $400 billion student loan forgiveness program. The Program is thus an unconstitutional exercise of Congress’s legislative power and should be vacated,” Pittman, who was nominated by former President Donald Trump in 2017, wrote.
Under Biden’s plan, borrowers are eligible for forgiveness of as much as $10,000 in federally owned student debt in the event that they have an annual income under $125,000. Pell Grant recipients are eligible for one more $10,000 in forgiveness.
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated that Biden’s plan would cost taxpayers $400 billion, with the extra deferment of payments and interest accrual on student loans through the top of 2022 costing taxpayers one other $20 billion.
Attorneys general from six Republican states — Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska and South Carolina — sued the Biden administration in September over the debt cancellation program, accusing the White House of overstepping its executive power.
The eighth US Circuit Court of Appeals sided with the states, and issued an order in October prohibiting the Biden administration “from discharging any student loan debt under the Cancellation program” until court proceedings for an injunction are accomplished.
Last week, Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Bryant denied a second emergency application to dam the loan forgiveness plan from going into effect — this one brought by two men from Indiana who claimed this system would cause them irreparable harm because of a burdensome state tax bill.
The suit had been rejected by an Indiana judge on the grounds that the 2 couldn’t prove their tax burden was “traceable” to Biden’s loan cancellation program.
On Oct. 20, Barrett rejected a separate request from the Brown County (Wis.) Taxpayers Association to dam this system on the grounds that it could cost taxpayers billions of dollars.
In each cases, Barrett neither commented on the filing, asked the Justice Department to reply, nor referred the matter to her other colleagues.
