September 29, 2022
Student loan forgiveness may not be happening in the next few weeks … or any time soon.
As expected, six Republican-led states field a lawsuit today against the Biden Administration asking a federal judge to block the program claiming the forgiveness would hurt their state financially, it’s “unfair” and it’s “economically unwise.”
The states suing include Nebraska, Missouri, Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas and South Carolina. Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas and South Carolina say the debt cancellation will take away the state’s tax revenue. This suit is the second this week against the Biden administration over the forgiveness program. Earlier this week a separate conservative-leaning law firm filed a similar lawsuit in Indiana to block the program.
The GOP lawsuit filed today argues the president doesn’t have the legal authority to forgive either $10,000 or $20,000 of debt for qualified federal student loan borrowers. The President and Department of Education say yes they do under the 2003 HEROES Act. I have a whole video about that if you want a deep dive into Biden’s justification.
So what’s next?
The timing is really important here.
We are supposed to see the student loan forgiveness application as soon as next week. But the federal judges hearing either this case or the Indiana case could temporarily put a pause on this whole program while these lawsuits get sorted out.
Read the lawsuit here.
