June 25 (UPI) — A pair of federal judges have blocked parts of President Joe Biden‘s student loan forgiveness plan less than a week before it was to go fully into effect.
The Biden administration has repeatedly sought to cancel billions of dollars in student loans and each time has been met by staunch Republican and conservative opposition.
Last summer, the Supreme Court blocked Biden’s plan to offer up to $20,000 in student loan relief to millions of eligible borrowers.
In response, the White House in February announced the Saving on a Valuable Education plan to lower monthly repayments and shorten the repayment period to little as 10 years. The plan, which was to fully go into effect Monday, has already canceled some $5.5 billion in student debt held by 414,000 borrowers.
Both Kansas and Missouri followed the announcement with separate lawsuits, accusing the Biden administration of trying to illegally bypass Congress to force taxpayers to pay off the student laws of other Americans.
On Monday, two federal judges separately granted the states partial injunctions blocking further implementation of the rule amid ongoing litigation on it.
In Missouri, U.S. District Judge John Ross blocked the Department of Education from further implementation of the rule, finding the states were likely to succeed on their merits.
Ross ruled that the Biden administration “lacks the authority” to forgive loans as part of the Income-Contingent Repayment plan and that doing so would “likely harm Missouri” by decreasing the administrative fees collected by the state’s High Education Loan Authority.
In Kansas, District Judge Daniel Crabtree enjoined the SAVE plan in part nationwide but decided not to undo actions already taken under the program as the states have failed to show that they would be harmed if the status quo was maintained.
Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said in a statement that they are reviewing the rulings while remaining committed to fixing “a broken student loan system” and making “college more affordable for more Americans.”
“We remain proud of our work providing debt relief to more than 4.75 million Americans,” he said. “We will continue to provide this long-overdue relief, no matter how many times Republican elected officials and their allies try to stop us.”
The Republican attorney generals from both Missouri and Kansas issued statements celebrating their separate decisions.
“Blue collar Kansas workers who didn’t go to college shouldn’t have to pay off the student loans of New Yorkers with gender studies degrees,” said Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach.
Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey similarly accused Biden of attempting to “saddle working Missourians with Ivy League debt” through his plan.
“Only Congress has the power of the purse, not the president,” he said. “Today’s ruling was a huge win for the rule of law, and for every American who Joe Biden was about to force to pay off someone else’s debt.”
Kansas, leading an 11-state coalition, filed its lawsuit in late March, followed by Missouri and its seven-state coalition suing the Biden administration in early April.
Earlier this month, a judge ruled eight states of Kansas’ coalition do not have standing.