Six states on Wednesday asked the U.S. Supreme Court to reject President Joe Biden’s bid to reinstate his plan to cancel billions of dollars in student debt that they have argued exceeded his administration’s authority.
The states – Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska and South Carolina – filed a response to the Biden administration’s request for the justices to lift a lower court’s injunction halting the program while litigation over its legality continues. Five of the six states are Republican governed while the other, Kansas, has a Republican attorney general.
In their filing, the states said Biden’s administration is trying to “assert power far beyond anything Congress could have conceived.” The administration has said the Nov. 14 decision to block the plan leaves millions of economically vulnerable borrowers in limbo.
The administration is also contesting a Nov. 10 ruling by a federal judge in Texas who found the program unlawful. The administration stopped taking applications for student debt relief after that decision.
In a policy benefiting millions of Americans, Biden announced in August that the U.S. government would forgive up to $10,000 in student loan debt for borrowers making less than $125,000 a year, or $250,000 for married couples. Students who received Pell Grants to benefit lower-income college students will have up to $20,000 of their debt canceled.
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