The House of Representatives has passed the Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolution authored by U.S. Rep. Bob Good (R-VA) to overturn President Biden’s student loan forgiveness program. The proposal passed by a vote of 218 to 203. It now proceeds to the Senate for review.
According to the Daily Caller, the CRA enables Congress to nullify executive orders through disapproval resolutions. The nullification can still be vetoed by the president. A prior resolution aimed at an environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investing rule from the Labor Department was passed, but was vetoed by President Biden.
“President Biden’s student loan transfer scheme shifts hundreds of billions of dollars of payments from student loan borrowers onto the backs of the American people,” Good said in a statement posted on his Facebook page. “I am proud to lead the fight against President Biden’s reckless, unilateral, and unauthorized action that would unfairly penalize those who worked hard to pay off their loans or who never took them out in the first place. I am pleased that my Republican colleagues overwhelmingly supported my legislation on the House Floor.”
According to a press release, this is Good's first successful legislation in the 118th Congress. His efforts, according to the Daily Caller, began in August 2022, when Biden declared a student loan forgiveness initiative, clearing up to $10,000 for earners below $125,000 and up to $20,000 for Pell Grant recipients. Critics, like Good, argue that the policy unfairly burdens taxpayers, exacerbates national debt, and could inflate college costs.
“The Biden Administration’s student loan transfer scheme would egregiously redistribute the cost of this debt from the borrower onto the back of every American taxpayer,” Good said in a statement to the Daily Caller. “This illegal, unconstitutional, and unauthorized, executive action puts us further in debt as a nation and will drive already-expensive college costs even higher. My Congressional Review Act resolution seeks to undo this disastrous plan.”
Good has estimated the student loan transfer will cost taxpayers between $315 billion and $980 billion over the next 10 years. This expense is on top of an estimated $195 billion from a repayment pause since March 2020, lasting through the summer of 2023, and $230 billion for the new Income-Driven Repayment Plan.
More than 92% of all student loan debt comes from federal loans – totaling over $1.6 trillion. This debt is held by only 13% of the population.
