“We are gravely concerned that the Department is undertaking a blatant political process with a predetermined outcome to achieve one of the President’s campaign promises at all costs.”
WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) is continuing to push back against the Biden administration’s student loan scheme as the U.S. Department of Education moves forward with debt cancellation negotiations despite the U.S. Supreme Court recently ruling the plan illegal. Senator Tuberville joined four of his colleagues in a letter to U.S. Department of Education Secretary Miguel Cardona reminding him of the plan’s unconstitutionality and of the unfair monetary burden this will place on millions of taxpayers who did not receive four-year degrees.
“Your choice to conveniently exclude the interests of taxpayers who paid their loans, did not take student loans, or did not attend college removes any pretenses of fairness from this panel,” the senators wrote. “The 87 percent of Americans with no student loan debt have no input, instead they are left with the $400 billion projected price tag of the program—or over four times the Department of Education’s fiscal year 2023 budget.”
Complete text of the letter can be found here.
Joining Senators Tommy Tuberville and Chuck Grassley (R-IA) in introducing the letter are U.S. Senators John Cornyn (R-TX), Thom Tillis (R-NC), and Tim Scott (R-SC)
BACKGROUND:
In August 2022, President Biden announced he would use executive emergency powers to require taxpayers to pay for other people’s student loans. In Jube 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that President Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan is “unconstitutional.”
Following the Supreme Court’s decision, the U.S. Department of Education announced its intention to pursue an “alternative path to debt relief.” The department later announced it would be holding discussions to find a workaround to the SCOTUS ruling.
As part of this process, the Department of Education assembled a 14-person panel to negotiate a new proposed rule to once again force taxpayers to pay for other people’s loans. The agency’s selections conveniently exclude the 87 percent of taxpayers who have either already paid off their loans, did not take out loans, or chose not to attend college. If the Biden administration finalizes its latest student debt transfer plan, individuals belonging to those groups will incur the estimated $400-billion-cost for other people’s student loans.
Senator Tuberville spent 40 years of his career coaching, educating, and mentoring students. He has dedicated his life to ensuring future generations can achieve the same American dream that he did.
As Alabama’s voice on the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, Tuberville has repeatedly warned of the disastrous impacts of the Biden administration’s student loan scheme, which could cost taxpayers as much as $559 billion over the next ten years. A non-partisan student loan expert has warned the plan could cost $1 trillion.
In February 2023, Senator Tuberville joined a bicameral letter that called on the Biden administration to rescind its Income Driven Repayment (IDR) proposed rule to cut student loan repayments by 40 percent.
After this letter went unanswered, Senator Tuberville helped introduce a Congressional Review Act resolution in March 2023 to overturn the Biden administration’s illegal IDR rule proposal.
In September 2023, Senator Tuberville joined another Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolution after the Biden administration announced it would ignore the Supreme Court’s June 30th decision and proceed forward with its debt cancellation scheme.
Senator Tuberville also recently introduced the Graduate Opportunity and Affordable Loans (GOAL) Act to help protect students from taking out loans they do not need or cannot afford. He announced the GOAL Act a press conference with three of his Republican colleagues, and his remarks from that press conference can be viewed here.
MORE:
TUBERVILLE OP-ED IN NEWSWEEK: Throwing Money at Colleges Is No Answer. A GOP Proposal Can Actually Address the Student Loan Crisis
TUBERVILLE ON KUDLOW: ‘Everyone in this country will have to pay for this debt’
WHNT: Tuberville introduces bill that limit amount graduate school students could borrow
Senator Tommy Tuberville represents Alabama in the United States Senate and is a member of the Senate Armed Services, Agriculture, Veterans’ Affairs, and HELP Committees.
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