MS senators announced support to repeal student debt ‘forgiveness’

Published 1:00 pm Wednesday, May 31, 2023

Mississippi’s senators announced Wednesday they will continue to oppose Pres. Joe Biden’s student loan debt transfer program and vote for a resolution to overturn the rule.

U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, of Brookhaven, and Sen. Roger Wicker said they will vote to approve the Congressional Review Act resolution (H.J.Res.45) that has already passed in the House. The two senators cosponsored the Senate version.

“President Biden is leading Americans to believe he can make student debt disappear because that sounds much nicer than the truth, which is that he is just handing over the burden of student loans to hardworking Americans who have either paid off their loans or chose not to borrow,” Hyde-Smith said. “This legislation would block this socialist scheme and protect Mississippians from being forced to pay off someone else’s debts.”

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“The president’s plan never had any legal footing, and it is an insult to working Americans who chose to avoid student debt or have repaid it in full,” Wicker said. “This is not a ‘forgiveness’ plan. It’s an unconditional debt transfer. Repealing this scheme would protect our current workforce from footing someone else’s bill and teach our next generation that they cannot expect others to pay for their obligations.”

In March, Hyde-Smith and Wicker joined 45 Republican colleagues in a companion resolution after the Government Accountability Office announced the policy is classified as a rule and eligible to be overturned under the CRA. Senate Joint Resolution 22 would stop the plan to transfer up to $20,000 in student loan debt per borrower onto taxpayers with no conditions, costing an estimated $400 billion.

In addition to repealing the student loan debt “forgiveness” plan, the CRA would also end the pause on student loan payments, which costs taxpayers $5 billion a month and has been extended six times under the Biden administration. The pause will have cost Americans a total of $195 billion by the time the most recent extension is set to expire in August.