[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 37 (Thursday, February 29, 2024)]
[House]
[Page H742]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    STUDENT LOAN FORGIVENESS SCHEME

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Tennessee (Mr. Rose) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. ROSE. Mr. Speaker, we recently learned that the Department of 
Education would be shifting another $1.2 billion in student loan debt 
from borrowers to the taxpayers of this country. This is yet another 
example of President Biden's administration abusing whatever regulatory 
lever they can find, every executive action he can think up to usurp 
Congress and continue this unjust bailout scheme.
  Unfortunately, the scheme is working. In recent months, tens of 
billions of dollars in borrowed money are no longer due for repayment. 
Let's be clear. Student loan debt can't be forgiven. It is simply being 
transferred to hardworking American taxpayers, most of whom never went 
to college or took out student loans.
  These tactics come despite what happened last summer when the Supreme 
Court of the United States overturned the Biden administration's 
previous student loan handout plan totaling more than $400 billion. The 
High Court found, in laymen's terms, that a President cannot spend 
hundreds of billions of dollars with the stroke of a pen.
  This is one of the most regressive ideas that I have seen in my time 
in Congress. It does nothing to solve the ballooning cost of a college 
education in this country. It simply adds to our national debt, which 
already, of course, sits at more than $34.2 trillion.
  We know that 43 million out of 255 million adults in the United 
States have some kind of student loan debt. We also know that $1.7 
trillion in outstanding college debt is disproportionately held by 
those earning the highest incomes in this country. It makes no sense 
for a blue-collar worker in Tennessee to be forced to pay off the 
college debt of a Harvard-educated doctor or lawyer.
  We have the freedom to choose whether to pursue higher education in 
this country. You can choose to forgo a 4-year degree, as millions of 
successful Americans have done, but this administration would have you 
pay for the 4-year degrees of others regardless of your choice.
  More than 100 million Americans have built a life without taking on 
debt. In fact, I represent thousands of Tennesseans who earn a good 
living without having borrowed money to do so. Why should they foot the 
bill for those who chose to go to college? This sends a terrible 
message to an entire generation of undergraduates and soon-to-be 
undergraduates. Perhaps more importantly, this unjust and wrongheaded 
action on the part of President Biden incentivizes universities to 
continue raising tuition with impunity because students can now borrow 
the money to pay these outrageous tuitions without having to pay it 
back.
  Furthermore, possibly the worst aspect of all of this is that every 
college graduate and every parent of a college graduate who did the 
honorable thing by paying off their student loans, often at great 
sacrifice, is now being harshly punished for having done so. It is also 
an ugly affront to the families across this country struggling to stay 
afloat amid record-high consumer prices as a result of Bidenflation.
  There are already programs on the books to help those struggling to 
repay their student loans, like income-driven repayment plans, in which 
roughly 40 percent of borrowers are already enrolled. I urge the White 
House to end this cycle of adding billions to our debt with the stroke 
of a pen. Just as the Supreme Court determined last June, this kind of 
policy must be approved by Congress before it can be implemented.

                          ____________________