- The House on Wednesday passed a bill to roll back Biden’s student debt relief plans.
- Two Democrats — Jared Golden and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez — voted to pass it.
- The bill now faces an uncertain path through the Senate, and Biden has said he will veto it.
House Republicans received Democratic help to pass a bill to block President Joe Biden’s student debt relief.
On Wednesday night, the House passed a GOP-led bill — first introduced in March by Rep. Bob Good — to block Biden’s plan to forgive up to $20,000 in student debt for borrowers. federal government, as well as ending the last extension of the student loan payment. break. The measure passed by a vote of 218 to 203 – but it wasn’t just Republicans who voted in favor of the legislation.
Democratic Representatives Jared Golden of Maine and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington joined Republicans in voting to reverse Biden’s student debt relief policies. Their offices did not respond to Insider’s request for comment on why they voted to pass the bill, but Gluesenkamp Perez writing on Twitter on Thursday that “expanding student debt forgiveness must be matched dollar for dollar with investments in vocational and technical education. I can’t support the former without the other. serious shortage of tradespeople must be seen and addressed as a national priority.It is a matter of respect.
“I’m all for fixing what broke, but the higher education system is totaled,” she wrote. “College costs too much and degrees earned get unwarranted social status, justifying more cost increases by our country’s elite. They have to get by and the system needs a total overhaul.”
As Insider previously reported, the bill was introduced using the Congressional Review Act, which is a fast-track tool lawmakers can use to override final rules put in place by federal agencies. Some Democratic lawmakers and advocates have said that given the wording of the CRA law, the bill to reverse student debt relief would be retroactive, meaning borrowers would risk seeing payments made. during the pause payment reinstated if the legislation is passed.
The bill to roll back student debt relief is now heading to the tightly divided Senate, where it faces an uncertain path. The Office of Management and Budget said Monday that if the bill made it to Biden’s office, he would veto it, and Democrats lambasted the legislation passing the House.
“House Republicans just voted to put 260,000 public servants in debt and force 36 million Americans to pay off months of suspended student loans immediately,” Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren said. writing on Twitter on Wednesday. “They’d rather give tax breaks to big business than help families crushed by debt. I will continue to fight that.”
And during the House debate before the vote, Democratic Rep. Maxwell Frost told the House Education Committee’s lead Republican, Virginia Foxx, that “if we legislate using the logic that you bring to this issue today women and blacks wouldn’t have the right to vote because it would be unfair to those who never got to vote before them If we were to legislate using your logic, than because there has been an injustice we can’t fix because it’s unfair to those who never got it fixed, means we’ll never make progress on any issue in this country.”
—Acyn (@Acyn) May 24, 2023
As the bill faces an uphill battle in the Senate and on Biden’s desk, millions of student borrowers continue to await a Supreme Court ruling expected by the end of June that will decide whether the sweeping plan Biden’s loan cancellation is legal.
“I’m proud to lead the fight against President Biden’s reckless, unilateral and unauthorized action that would unfairly penalize those who worked hard to repay their loans or never took them out in the first place,” Good said. said in a statement Wednesday. “I am pleased that my fellow Republicans overwhelmingly supported my legislation in the House today.”
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