Student borrowers advocate Biden debt relief program amid Supreme Court battle
Christine Queally
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Demonstrators gathered at the Supreme Court on Tuesday to voice their support for President Joe Biden’s debt relief plan as the fate of one of his key promises hangs in the balance
Biden introduced his student loan debt relief plan in August, but it has been held up in the courts ever since because of pushback from Republicans.
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On Tuesday, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the two separate cases that will ultimately decide the legality of Biden’s plan, Department of Education v. Brown and Biden v. Nebraska.
Republicans have hit out against Biden’s debt relief plan with claims it is a misuse of federal funds and wouldn’t be fair to those who don’t hold student debt.
“Young liberal professionals with advanced degrees get a giant handout, and working people in rural America get the bill,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said on the Senate floor last summer.
Democrats argue Biden’s plan is valid because previous administrations have enacted similar initiatives.
At the People’s Rally for Student Debt Cancellation, Democratic lawmakers rebutted claims from Republicans that Biden’s student debt relief initiative is executive overreach, saying the president has the “legal authority to cancel student loan debt.”
“It is exactly what Donald Trump did. He canceled billions of dollars of interest payments that were coming due,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) said.
“And not one Republican, not one, raised an objection,” she continued.
Supporters of Biden’s plan also cited the pandemic and inflation as key reasons it will be even more challenging for borrowers to pay back loans in full.
“The record in both of these cases clearly demonstrates that the borrowers who would receive relief under the administration’s plan suffered financially during the pandemic will be financially destabilized by their loan payments and are at a heightened risk for default once federal student loan repayments resume,” said Kyra Taylor, staff attorney at the National Consumer Law Center, an organization that co-sponsored the rally.
Several lawmakers urged the Supreme Court justices to support Biden’s plan, with some calling into question the legitimacy of previous decisions by the high court as well.
“This court has let us down before, overturning and obstructing the will of the people. This court has been weaponized. This court has torn away our fundamental rights.” said Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA)
The Biden administration has said it expects the pending cases to be resolved by the end of the court’s term in June.
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“I’m completely confident my plan is legal,” Biden told reporters in November.
If Biden’s plan is shot down in the courts, student borrowers will be required to resume loan payments that were paused during the pandemic as early as 2023.