06.30.23

Scott Statement on SCOTUS Striking Down Biden’s Student Loan Program

“The Court’s decision today will deny borrowers—including an estimated 140,000 borrowers in my district—the relief they need to make ends meet.”

WASHINGTON – Today, Ranking Member Robert C. “Bobby” Scott (VA-03) released the following statement after the Supreme Court ruled in Department of Education v. Brown and Biden v. Nebraska to strike down President Biden’s student loan program.  Under the program, 90 percent of the benefits would have gone to borrowers making less than $75,000 a year.

“A college education should not depend on how much money a student’s parents make. In fact, when President Johnson signed the Higher Education Act into law, he said it meant, ‘that a high school senior anywhere in this great land of ours can apply to any college or any university in any of the 50 States and not be turned away because [their] family is poor.’ Yet, the rising cost of tuition, decades of disinvestment in higher education, and the declining relative value of the Pell Grant have left many student loan borrowers with burdensome debt.

“While the Court acknowledged that the students in the Department of Education v. Brown case lacked standing to challenge the program, it unfortunately struck the entire program in Biden v. Nebraska. In Biden v. Nebraska, the Court ruled that at least one state, Missouri, had standing as MOHELA (a student loan servicer) is ‘by law and function, an instrumentality of Missouri’ and the plan would affect MOHELA financially. Regrettably, the Court’s decision today will deny borrowers—including an estimated 140,000 borrowers in my district—the relief they need to make ends meet.

“Moving forward, I am focused on solving the root causes that created the student debt crisis in the first place.

Specifically, I am working to advance the Lowering Obstacles to Achievement Now (LOAN) Act which would double the Pell Grant, improve the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, lower interest rates, and make other critical reforms to make our student loan system work for students. Simply put, by making loans cheaper to take out and easier to pay off, the LOAN Act will help improve the lives of student loan borrowers—both now and in the future.”

For more information about restarting student loan payments, click here.

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