<mediadc-video-embed data-state="{"cms.site.owner":{"_ref":"00000161-3486-d333-a9e9-76c6fbf30000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b93390000"},"cms.content.publishDate":1668183808768,"cms.content.publishUser":{"_ref":"00000177-1b39-d2c7-af7f-5fbf13ff0004","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"cms.content.updateDate":1668183808768,"cms.content.updateUser":{"_ref":"00000177-1b39-d2c7-af7f-5fbf13ff0004","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"rawHtml":"
var _bp = _bp||[]; _bp.push({ "div": "Brid_68183804", "obj": {"id":"27789","width":"16","height":"9","video":"1176072"} }); ","_id":"00000184-6780-d5ff-a7af-7fdf72630000","_type":"2f5a8339-a89a-3738-9cd2-3ddf0c8da574"}”>Video EmbedPresident Joe Biden‘s administration announced Friday it would stop accepting student loan forgiveness applications after a federal judge in Texas ruled the program unlawful a day earlier.
The webpage, which previously led to a simple form to submit student debt relief applications, now depicts a message informing users that the “Student Loan Debt Relief Is Blocked.” Biden announced the plan in August ahead of the November midterm elections, aiming to forgive up to $10,000 in loan debt for borrowers making less than $125,000 per year, while those who received Pell Grants would have up to $20,000 of their debt canceled.
TEXAS FEDERAL JUDGE RULES BIDEN STUDENT DEBT RELIEF PROGRAM ‘UNLAWFUL’
“Courts have issued orders blocking our student debt relief program. As a result, at this time, we are not accepting applications. We are seeking to overturn those orders,” the website displays. A second paragraph explains that the Department of Education will “hold your application” if one has already been submitted, noting “We will post information as soon as further updates are available.”
Joe Biden, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador
The DOE and the administration vowed to fight the Thursday court order but were “disappointed in the decision of the Texas court to block loan relief moving forward.”
“The Department of Justice has appealed today’s decision on our behalf, and we will continue to keep borrowers informed about our efforts to deliver targeted relief,” Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona wrote in a statement.
The DOJ filed a notice of appeal with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit within a couple of hours of U.S. District Judge Mark Pittman’s decision Thursday to block Biden’s student debt relief plan. The Louisiana-based appeals court is known for being comprised of mostly Republican-appointed judges.
“No one can plausibly deny that it is either one of the largest delegations of legislative power to the executive branch or one of the largest exercises of legislative power without congressional authority in the history of the United States,” Pittman, an appointee of former President Donald Trump, wrote in the 26-page order.
The lawsuit was filed by the conservative Job Creators Network Foundation in October on behalf of a borrower who did not qualify for the full $20,000 in debt relief and another who is ineligible for the program.
“This attempted illegal student loan bailout would have done nothing to address the root cause of unaffordable tuition: greedy and bloated colleges that raise tuition far more than inflation year after year while sitting on $700 billion in endowments,” Elaine Parker, President of JCNF, told the Washington Examiner in a statement.
In a separate legal battle over the debt relief plan, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit granted a stay against the program after six Republican-led states sued.
Several lawsuits have been filed against the debt relief plan, including plaintiffs from Indiana and Wisconsin who filed emergency applications to the Supreme Court, which were dismissed for what many legal experts believe to be a lack of standing. Several other challenges are ongoing in lower courts.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
While House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre criticized Pittman’s decision in a statement Thursday, saying that the lawsuits against the president’s debt relief program have been “backed by extreme Republican special interests.”
The plan to cancel outstanding student debt will cost the country roughly $400 billion, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, while another budget model pegged the cost at nearly $1 trillion.
