The Senate joined the House in disapproving of President Joe Biden’s student-debt-relief order under the Congressional Review Act, which allows the first branch to check administrative agencies.
While both chambers have now acted to disapprove of the Education Department’s controversial use of the HEROES Act to justify the forgiveness, Biden has vowed to veto the resolution.
The vote was 52-46. In a rebuke to the president, Republicans were able to peel off members of the Democratic caucus in both chambers. Senators Joe Manchin (D., W. Va.), Jon Tester (D., Mont.), and Kyrsten Sinema (I., Ariz.) voted for the disapproval measure in the upper chamber. In the House, Representatives Jared Golden (D., Maine) and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D., Wash.) voted to roll back the relief.
In the Senate, the resolution was led by Senator Bill Cassidy (R., La.), who said in a statement that it protects Americans who have not taken out loans from subsidizing those who have.
“Make no mistake, these reckless student loan schemes do not ‘forgive’ debt. They transfer the burden from those who willingly took out loans for college in order to make more money when they graduated, to Americans who never attended college or already fulfilled their commitment to pay off their loans,” explained Cassidy. “It is unfair to the hundreds of millions of Americans who will bear the burden of paying off hundreds of billions of dollars of someone else’s student debt.”
Tester concurred in a statement, arguing the administration is not addressing the root causes of the problem, such as college affordability.
It is unlikely Republicans will be able to attract additional support from Democrats to overturn a veto from Biden.
The forgiveness program would reduce loans by up to $20,000 for borrowers who make less than $125,000 per year. The particular act which the Department of Education took to authorize the student-loan relief is the HEROES Act of 2003. Critics have claimed that the plan exceeds the Department’s authority and that there is little evidence that all recipients of student loans are in a worse financial position.
The program’s implementation is currently blocked as the Supreme Court decides its constitutionality. While the conservative justices appeared skeptical of the administration’s arguments on the merits, the plaintiffs may not have standing to challenge the program.
The CRA resolution would also end the pause on student-loan payments if signed into law. However, the debt-ceiling deal, if it is not amended, does the same thing and Biden has agreed to it as part of negotiations with Republicans.