(ConservativeSense.com) – A group of states run by Republicans joined together last week to sue the Biden administration in an attempt to stop new repayment plans for student loans, speeding up the process of qualifying for lower monthly payments and remaining debt cancellation for millions of Americans.
On Thursday, March 28, 11 Republican-controlled states filed a lawsuit spearheaded by Kansas that argued the creation of the Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) Plan overstepped presidential authority. The plan became available last year and has already canceled over 150,000 borrowers’ loans since its implementation. The lawsuit also argues that the current loan forgiveness plan is reminiscent of the first attempt struck down by the Supreme Court last year.
According to the lawsuit, the Supreme Court declared the action illegal “last time Defendants tried” to implement widespread student loan forgiveness and that nothing “has changed” since that ruling.
Although the US Department of Education did not comment on that lawsuit, they noted that Congress granted the department authority in 1993 to determine how repayment plans based on income would be defined. The statement said that the Biden-Harris administration would continue “fighting to provide support and relief” to American borrowers “no matter how many times” Republicans try to stop them.
President Joe Biden announced the plan in 2022 that would redefine income-based repayments, as well as another plan that would’ve canceled a maximum of $20,000 in student loan debt for over 40 million borrowers. The cancellation plan was blocked after Republican states filed a lawsuit, while the SAVE Plan remained on the table.
The latest lawsuit aimed at the SAVE Plan was filed in a Kansas federal court around the same time as the White House held a “day of action” to promote the plan, which they say already has over 7.7 million borrowers enrolled. Of those enrolled, over 5 million have already had their monthly payments cut to at least $100 due to small annual incomes, many of them qualifying for $0 minimum required payments.
Kris Kobach, the Kansas Attorney General who filed the lawsuit, called the president’s actions to move ahead with the plan “brazen” and said that “the law simply does not allow” Biden to do so.
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