Extreme MAGA Republicans Vote to Deny Debt Relief for More Than 20.6 Million of Their Own Constituents
WASHINGTON – Today, House Republicans advanced H.J. Res. 45, which would deny student debt relief for43 million student loan borrowers debt relief, including more than 20.6 million of their own constituents. The resolution could also create chaos for student loan borrowers by potentially forcing them to repay the last four months’ worth of student loan payments. This would trigger a wave of delinquencies and defaults for our most vulnerable borrowers.
View Ranking Member Scott’s floor remarks on YouTube.
Ranking Member Robert C. “Bobby” Scott (VA-03) delivered the following remarks during today’s floor debate on the resolution.
“Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise in opposition to H.J. Res. 45.
“Forty-three million Americans are eligible for President Biden’s student loan relief. That’s an average of almost 100,000 people in each of our districts.
“Nearly 26 million borrowers in Congressional Districts all over the country have already applied for relief, including 16 million who had already been approved prior to litigation stopping the process.
“H.J. Res. 45 seeks to deny these borrowers the relief they were promised.
“To be clear, the people who would be impacted the most are not the ‘wealthy and well-connected.’ Ninety percent of the relief would go to borrowers earning less than $75,000 a year, and you’re not even eligible if you’re making over $125,000 a year. That’s in stark contrast, of course, to the Trump tax scam where 80 percent of the benefits went to the top one percent and corporations.
“Moreover, my Republican colleagues refuse to acknowledge the serious questions that have been raised about how the resolution would actually be implemented—because, under a Congressional Review Act resolution, you don’t get to pick and choose which parts of a rule you are overturning. You have to overturn the whole rule—including the pause in student loan payments and the deferral of interest.
“Now, how do you ‘un-pause’ a payment that you were supposed to make many months ago? And what’s going to happen to all those interest payments that now have to be added back to the loans? That’s about $233 per month in interest and principle.
“And what happens to the credits that participants in Public Service Loan Forgiveness were promised during those months? Are these fire fighters, and teachers, and police officers, and other public servants—who may have had their loans forgiven—now on the hook for four additional payments?
“The reality is that H.J. Res. 45 would trigger a wave of delinquencies and defaults for our most vulnerable borrowers. Intentionally or not, this resolution would create chaos for borrowers and their families as well as the loan servicers. And the Congressional Research Service has confirmed that this chaos would be triggered by the retroactive application of this rule.
“Mr. Speaker, anyone in this country who wants to take advantage of the benefits of a college education should be able to do so—not just the wealthy few.
“And that’s the way it used to be. Just several decades ago, Pell Grants covered 80 percent of the cost of attending a state college – now it’s less than 30 percent. Adjusted for inflation, states are paying less for state colleges than they used to.
“This proposal does nothing to help students pay for their college education, so I strongly urge my colleagues to oppose the resolution. I reserve the balance of my time.”
Read more about the impact of H.J. Res. 45 here.
Read more about how President Biden’s student debt plan would provide relief to those who need it most here.
###
Press Contact
Democratic Press Office, 202-226-0853
Next Article Previous Article