Biden Vetoes Congress’ Block of His Student Loan ‘Forgiveness’ Rule; Now It’s up to SCOTUS

The U.S. House passed a resolution—H.J. Res. 45—to block the Biden Department of Education’s rule, which would “forgive” millions of dollars in student loans, on May 25. Then the U.S. Senate voted on and passed the resolution on June 1. The White House made it clear that the legislation would be vetoed by President Joe Biden once it reached his desk.

Now, that has happened:

President Biden has vetoed a measure that would have overturned his student debt relief plan, leaving the fate of the program in the hands of the Supreme Court. […]

The president’s proposal, which has been a target of Republicans since he first unveiled it, would impact 40 million borrowers, providing $10,000 in loan forgiveness to those making less than $125,000 annually and $20,000 in forgiveness for Pell Grants recipients.

White House released a statement Wednesday, informing Congress of Biden’s veto:

….Biden said he vetoed the solution because he is “committed to continuing to make college affordable and providing this critical relief to borrowers as they work to recover from a once-in-a-century pandemic.”

It continues by giving the Biden Administration’s argument for the department’s action:

The Department of Education’s action is based on decades-old authority, granted by the Congress.  Multiple administrations over the last two decades have used this authority, following the same procedures as my Administration, to protect borrowers from the effects of national emergencies and military deployments.  The Department of Education’s exercise of this authority has never previously been subject to the Congressional Review Act.

The letter also includes an attack on the lawmakers who passed the resolution:

It is a shame for working families across the country that lawmakers continue to pursue this unprecedented attempt to deny critical relief to millions of their own constituents, even as several of these same lawmakers have had tens of thousands of dollars of their own business loans forgiven by the Federal Government.

You can read the full statement from the White House, addressed to the House, here.

But that isn’t the end of the road for the issue, as we’ve previously reported. The Supreme Court continues to consider the arguments of both sides on student loans, and is expected to weigh in with the final word soon. We’ll keep you in the loop on further developments on this.