Senate Passes Bill to Overturn Biden's Student Debt Forgiveness
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President Joe Biden announced he will veto the measure, but the biggest challenge to student debt forgiveness lies before the Supreme Court
The Democratic-majority Senate hit back hard at one of President Joe Biden's orders Thursday, approving a measure striking down his student debt relief plan that authorized grants to 40 million borrowers up to $20,000 in loan forgiveness, though President Joe Biden will most likely exercise his veto power against the measure.
The Senate approved the measure in a 52-46 vote just days after it passed with a Republican majority in the House of Representatives, which would repeal Biden's debt relief program and end the hiatus administration on federal student loan payments.
Democratic Sens. Jon Tester of Montana and Joe Manchin of West Virginia, and Independent Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, joined Republicans in voting to reject Biden's proposal.
As a measure of the Congressional Review Act (CRA), only 50 votes in the Senate were required instead of the usual 60 to overcome a filibuster.
The White House has made it clear that a veto is looming on a Admin Policy Statement, and neither house can provide a two-thirds vote to overturn it.
However, the proposal to partly forgive Biden's student debt is still pending a decision by the Supreme Court, which was highly skeptical during oral arguments earlier this year.
While student debt forgiveness has strong support among progressives, his bicameral rejection would not have been possible without the help of moderate Democrats.
Debt relief will cost taxpayers an estimated $400 billion. The Congressional Budget Office recently estimated that reversing the course of the relief would reduce the deficit by $320 billion over 10 years.
In addition, The House of Representatives on Wednesday approved the agreement to raise the bipartisan debt ceiling, which includes a strict cut of the payment pause on student loans from the era of the pandemic at the end of the summer, eliminating any chance student loan forgiveness advocates had of convincing Biden to continue the moratorium on student debt payments.