Student Loan Forgiveness: Can Biden Do That?

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

63% : The Biden administration's forgiveness of student loans under the HEROES Act is certainly ripe for a court challenge.
54% : Although the HEROES Act appears to grant the education secretary the power to forgive student loans, that is not necessarily the case.
52% : The administration acted in accordance with a legal opinion penned by the education secretary, which gave sections 1098bb(a)(1) and (2) an expansive interpretation -- that is, that these sections give the Education Department the authority to put into effect a categorical program to cancel federal student debt regardless of the law or regulation under which the loan was issued.
48% : The Trump and Biden administrations relied on these provisions to suspend student loan payments during the national emergency related to the pandemic, from March 2020 until January 2023.
47% : Considering Kline's statement, it is apparent that he, and Congress, did not contemplate the act's grant of authority to include the power to forgive student loans.
43% : It is highly questionable that the Education Department has the authority to forgive student debt under the HEROES Act, the Higher Education Act, and Article I, section 9 of the Constitution.
37% : The statute itself does not state that the education secretary may forgive student debt, and concomitantly, there are no provisions regarding the forgiveness of student debt in the regulations.

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