WASHINGTON D.C. — President Biden’s student loan debt-relief initiative may be at risk of ending as a group of senators, including North Carolina’s Thom Tillis, seeks to strike it down.
Tillis, along with Mitt Romney (R-UT), Bill Cassidy (R-LA) and Tim Scott (R-SC), re-introduced the Student Loan Accountability Act — originally put forward in May 2022 — on Thursday. If passed, it will prevent the Biden Administration from relieving student debt.
The act prohibits the federal departments of education, justice and treasury from forgiving loans or outstanding balances. The senators’ solution is to address the root causes of increased higher education costs.
“President Biden’s illegal student loan cancellation plan is grossly unfair for the millions of people who have worked hard and sacrificed to pay off their student loans,” Tillis said in a press release Thursday.
Tillis’ statement was released following an announcement from the Department of Education that starting Aug. 1, it will begin emailing 25 million people owing student loans with updates on potential debt relief.
This is the Biden Administration’s second attempt to provide loan forgiveness, as last year on June 30 the Supreme Court struck down the plan in a lawsuit filed by states including Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebrask and South Carolina.
According to the Education Data Initiative, 87% of people in North Carolina do not have student loans. Tillis says these people “should not have to pay for someone else’s degree.”
So far, Biden’s Higher Education Act has implemented $620 billion of debt cancellation and could result in $1.4 trillion in national debt, according to the release from Tillis’ camp.
Tillis claims the Student Loan Accountability act also allows exemptions for existing targeted federal student loan forgiveness, cancellation, or repayment programs in effect under the Higher Education Act. This includes the Public Service Loan Forgiveness and Teacher Loan Forgiveness programs.
The Public Service Loan Forgiveness program allows people who have worked in federal, state, local, tribal government or nonprofit service for at least 10 years student loan debt cancellation.
Teacher Loan Forgiveness could allow full-time teachers who have taught in a low-income school or educational service agency for at least five years eligibility for loan forgiveness.
“These reckless decisions further fuel inflation for hardworking Americans and unfairly penalize individuals who weighed financial considerations, such as affordability, when making higher education decisions,” according to the release.
The Education Department is set to issue a final regulation on debt relief in October.
Currently, people who are eligible will include those enrolled in low-financial-value programs, first entered repayment before July 1, 2000 or July 1, 2005 based on degree level, or people whose loans are greater than they were at the start of borrowing.
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