[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 88 (Tuesday, May 21, 2024)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3785-S3786]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             STUDENT LOANS

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, on one final matter, speaking of the 
failure to discharge basic responsibilities--the Biden administration's 
Department of Education.
  Around the country, high school seniors and their parents are still 
reeling from delays and processing errors in a botched rollout of the 
Free Application

[[Page S3786]]

for Federal Student Aid. Families have had to make tough decisions 
ahead of enrollment deadlines with incomplete information.
  One such parent described the frustration she and her daughter were 
facing back in April:

       She's supposed to decide by the end of this month and pay 
     her housing deposit, but we can't commit to anything until we 
     know what the financials look like.

  It certainly makes one wonder: What are all those bureaucrats at the 
Education Department up to if they can't complete a fundamental part of 
their job? Unfortunately but unsurprisingly, the answer seems to be 
spending time and taxpayer dollars on activities that run contrary to 
the Department's mandate.
  The first of these activities, as I have discussed before, is student 
loan socialism. Of course, the Supreme Court made it clear that this 
scheme is illegal, and basic common sense tells us it is profoundly 
unfair both to folks who opted not to pursue a 4-year degree and to 
those who worked through college and paid their own bills. But 
President Biden has continued undeterred. Last month, his 
administration proposed a new rule to allow the Secretary of Education 
to cancel additional student debt for certain borrowers. It is 
estimated this will cost taxpayers nearly $150 billion.
  But the Department's illegal nonsense doesn't stop there. Unelected 
bureaucrats are also trying to rewrite title IX of the Civil Rights 
Act. The Biden administration apparently wants to take a law that was 
designed to promote equal opportunities for women in education and make 
it do the exact opposite. This rule would require States and 
educational institutions to abandon biological sex as the determinant 
in program decisions and use so-called gender identity instead, and 
institutions that refuse to comply would lose access to Federal 
funding. More than 25 States have already sued to overturn this absurd 
rule, but the damage to the Department of Education's reputation is 
already done.
  High school seniors and parents have already had to make college 
choices without crucial financial aid information. Working taxpayers 
are already footing the bill for the highest earning segments of the 
Washington Democrats' base. Laws that enacted protections for women are 
already being used to violate those same protections. It is shaping up 
to be a banner year for the Biden administration bureaucrats.

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