Stefanik, Congressional colleagues call President Biden’s student loan bailout illegal

WASHINGTON, D.C.- There is much debate over President Joe Biden’s latest decision to bailout student loan debt, including both praise and criticism from lawmakers and citizens alike.

North Country Congresswoman Elise Stefanik (R-NY-21) released a statement Tuesday, calling Biden’s $500 billion student debt forgiveness plan “illegal.”

In a letter sent to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Stefanik and fellow lawmakers spotlighted a specific quote she said in July, 2021: “People think that the President of the United States has the power of debt forgiveness. He does not. He can postpone, he can delay, but he does not have that power. That has to be an act of Congress.”

However, according to a fact check from Time Magazine, the context of Pelosi’s quote at that time mirrored an uncertainty from the President himself on whether he had legal authority to cancel student loan debt.

In 1965, the Higher Education Act granted Presidents authority to cancel student loans, but the issue today brings up a point on whether it can be done on such a mass scale.

The Biden Administration has reportedly cited the ‘Heroes Act,’ which was passed in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. The law gives clear pathway for the Secretary of Education to “waive or modify” any provision of the law “in connection with a war or other military operation or national emergency.”

Since former President Donald Trump declared the COVID-19 pandemic a national emergency, and the Biden Administration extended it, officials argue they can use the act to freeze student loan payments and cancel a portion of the federal education debt.

Biden’s student debt relief plan offers $10,000 forgiveness for individual borrowers earning less than $125,000 per-year, along with couples making less than $250,000 annually.

Image courtesy via the office of North Country Congresswoman Elise Stefanik.