Ranking Member Cassidy, Thune, Colleagues Reintroduce Bill to End Biden’s Student Loan Pause
WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Senators Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-LA), ranking member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) committee, and John Thune (R-SD) reintroduced the Stop Reckless Student Loan Actions Act, which would end President Biden’s current student loan pause and prohibit the president from cancelling any outstanding federal student loan due to a national emergency. Under the Biden administration, the student loan repayment pause has been extended six times and is costing taxpayers $195 billion. The bill would still allow the president to temporarily suspend repayment for certain low- and middle-income borrowers, as well as military personnel during a time of war or national emergency.
“President Biden is unfairly transferring the burden from those who willingly took on loans to those who did not,” said Dr. Cassidy. “There is no support for the man who didn’t go to college but is paying off a work truck or the woman who responsibly paid off her student loans but is struggling with her mortgage. This legislation stops Biden from sticking them with the bill for hundreds of billions of dollars.”
“Taxpayers, especially working families, should not be responsible for bearing the costs associated with President Biden’s federal student loan suspension,” said Senator Thune. “It’s incredibly unfair to those who never incurred student debt because they didn’t attend college in the first place or because they either worked their way through school or their family pinched pennies and planned for higher education. It’s time for borrowers to resume repayment of their student loans, and I’m proud to lead this common-sense legislation that would protect taxpayers and prevent President Biden from suspending these loans in perpetuity.”
The Stop Reckless Student Loan Actions Act was previously introduced in the 117th Congress. Cassidy and Thune are joined by U.S. Senators John Barrasso (R-WY), Katie Britt (R-AL), Kevin Cramer (R-ND), Joni Ernst (R-IA), Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Roger Marshall (R-KS), Rick Scott (R-FL), and Tim Scott (R-SC).
Earlier this month, Cassidy joined an amicus brief challenging the Biden administration’s student loan cancellation scheme, which is estimated to cost taxpayers $400 billion. He also urged the administration to rescind their Income Driven Repayment (IDR) rule proposal, which could bring the total cost of Biden’s student loan policies to $1 trillion.
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