U.S. Sens. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) and Mitt Romney (R-UT) joined 41 of their Republican colleagues in the Senate, in addition to almost 130 GOP members in the U.S. House of Representatives, in filing amicus briefs on Friday with the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) opposing the Biden administration’s student-loan debt relief program. The High Court is set to hear arguments on the case later this month.
“My colleagues and I urge the Court to preserve the constitutional separation of powers and stop this partisan handout on the taxpayer’s dime,” Sen. Blackburn said in a Feb. 3 statement.
In both Biden v. Nebraska and Department of Education v. Brown, the GOP lawmakers argue that President Joe Biden’s decision to forgive federal student loan debt in these circumstances constitutes unprecedented executive overreach and defies the separation of powers between Congress and the president.
In exercising its powers, Congress enacted Title IV of the Higher Education Act to help eligible borrowers pay for the costs of higher education. But it also deliberately structured Title IV to minimize the program’s burden on taxpayers, according to the 44-page brief from the senators.
“To that end, Congress authorized the forgiveness of federal student loan debt only in specific, narrow circumstances. This is not one of them,” the senators wrote, noting they submitted their brief in support of respondents “because the Executive’s actions here defy Title IV, threaten to deprive the nation of nearly half a trillion dollars, and offend the separation of powers enshrined in the Constitution.”
Cosigners of the brief include U.S. Sens. Bill Cassidy (R-LA), Mike Rounds (R-SD), Thom Tillis (R-NC), John Thune (R-SD), John Hoeven (R-ND), Todd Young (R-IN), Roger Wicker (R-MS), Jerry Moran (R-KS), Joni Ernst (R-IA), Steve Daines (R-MT), Tim Scott (R-SC), and Deb Fischer (R-NE).
“Hard-working Americans should not be forced to foot the bill for coastal elites to get their PhD in gender studies,” said Sen. Blackburn. “Still, President Biden has unilaterally used his national COVID emergency to justify student loan bailouts.”
She said the president’s plan bypasses Congress’s comprehensive plan for student borrowers in the Higher Education Act of 1965 and “clearly violates basic principles of executive power under Article II of the Constitution.”
In the House, 128 Republicans made the same arguments against the Biden administration’s student loan forgiveness plan in their 28-page brief, which included signatures from Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA), Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-MN), and Chief Deputy Whip Guy Reschenthaler (R-PA).
Among other members who signed the House brief were U.S. Reps. Glenn “GT” Thompson (R-PA), Lloyd Smucker (R-PA), Michelle Steel (R-CA), Ron Estes (R-KS), Ann Wagner (R-MO), Vern Buchanan (R-FL), John Moolenaar (R-MI), Mike Bost (R-IL), Mike Kelly (R-PA), Ken Calvert (R-CA), Andy Barr (R-KY), Don Bacon (R-NE), Buddy Carter (R-GA), Larry Bucshon (R-IN), Steve Womack (R-AR), Pete Stauber (R-MN), Brad Wenstrup (R-OH), French Hill (R-AR), Garret Graves (R-LA), Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA), Michael Burgess (R-TX), Randy Feenstra (R-IA), and Bob Latta (R-OH).
“There can be no dispute… that the powers to spend and forgive the monies owed to the Treasury rest with Congress alone,” according to the House members’ brief, which pointed out that each part of the federal student loan program reflects “exhaustive compromises and calculated policy judgments” that survived “the rigors of bicameralism and presentment.”
And through such duly enacted laws, they wrote, Congress intended and expected that the borrowers who voluntarily assumed these obligations would repay their student loans under the conditions set forth in Title IV.
“And where Congress believed that loan forgiveness was warranted, it made that intention expressly clear,” wrote the congressmen. “Yet the Biden administration, through its Cancellation Program, now seeks to discard those deliberate limitations and unilaterally erase roughly half a trillion dollars in debt owed to the United States.
“The Cancellation Program,” they wrote, “is a clear arrogation of the legislative power.”