“We successfully halted their first two illegal student loan cancellation schemes,” Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey said in a statement. “I have no doubt we will secure yet another win to block the third one.”
A coalition of conservative attorneys general have filed a lawsuit challenging the Biden administration’s latest student loan forgiveness plan.
According to The Washington Post, the initiative is being led by Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey. It was filed days after the U.S. Supreme Court refused to lift an injunction on the administration’s proposed debt-forgiveness plan, which Bailey had also opposed.
“We successfully halted their first two illegal student loan cancellation schemes,” Bailey said in a statement. “I have no doubt we will secure yet another win to block the third one.”
“They may be throwing spaghetti at the walls to see what sticks, but my office is meeting them every step of the way,” he said.
The Hill notes that the administration’s plan has yet to take effect, and is only expected to be finalized sometime later this autumn. However, the lawsuit alleges that the White House is already trying to cut corners—and could move to begin canceling debt as soon as “this week.”
“That is both extraordinarily inequitable and also expressly violates a statute prohibiting the [Secretary of Education] from implementing rules like this one sooner than 60 days after publication [in the Federal Register],” the lawsuit says.
Missouri Solicitor General Josh Divine has since said that neither he nor Bailey oppose all debt-forgiveness initiatives, so long as such initiatives comply with federal law.
“I mean, on the very same day last year that the Supreme Court said to the Biden administration, ‘You can’t do this,’ literally minutes later, they said, ‘Well, we’re going to try it again. We’re going to try it again under a different statute that has even less plausible authority,’” Divine told MissouriNet.
“I don’t think the president should be making promises that he knows he can’t keep,” Divine added. “He shouldn’t be promising the American people, ‘I’m going to cancel your loans,’ when he knows that he has no authority to do that. This is about more than just the people who have taken out student loans. I mean, I have more than my fair share of student loans.”
Divine told MissouriNet that he recognizes that “the costs of education [are] out of control,” and have been “for 30 years.”
“I support legislative efforts to take a look into this, especially legislative efforts that are going to change the incentive structure for colleges not to keep increasing the amount of tuition,” Divine said. “This does the opposite of that.”
Sources
GOP states sue to end Biden’s student loan forgiveness rule
GOP-led states sue to end Biden’s student debt forgiveness policy
Missouri Solicitor General defends Biden Administration loan forgiveness lawsuits
Republican-led states file new lawsuit to block Biden’s student loan forgiveness plans
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