Further Continuing Appropriations and Other Extension Act, 2024--Motion

Floor Speech

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Mr. CASSIDY. Madam President, the Senate will soon vote on the Congressional Review Act, a resolution of disapproval to overturn President Biden's newest student loan scheme.

Just like President Biden's original student debt cancellation scheme, this IDR does not forgive debt. It transfers the burden of $559 billion in Federal student loans to the 87 percent of Americans who don't have student loans, who chose not to go to college, or who already responsibly paid off their debts.

I want to emphasize this point. There is much said in this Chamber about those who do less well and the implication that a policy like this would benefit those who do less well. This benefits folks-- couples--who make over $400,000. They went to college precisely to get a degree to earn more money, and many of them are earning more money. And this forgives--no, it doesn't forgive their debt. It transfers their debt to someone who never went; someone--he and his wife, she and her husband who are making $65,000 a year. They are going to have to pick up the slack for a couple making over $400,000.

This is not a benefit for those who are less well-off. This is a benefit--a political payout--to folks who have done quite well precisely because they went to college.

Under this rule, a majority of bachelor's degree student loan borrowers will not be expected to pay back even the principal. Ninety- one percent of new student loan debt will be eligible for reduced payments subsidized by the taxpayers. Where is the forgiveness for the guy who didn't go to college but is working to pay off the loan on a truck he takes to work? What about the woman who paid off her student loans and bought a less expensive home but is now struggling to afford the mortgage that she has? Is the administration providing them relief? No, of course not. Instead, the administration would have them not only pay their bills but the bills of those who decided to go to college in order to make more money or who made a decision not to pay back their student loans so they could buy a bigger house.

This is irresponsible. It is deeply unfair.

Aside from being unfair, this student loan cancellation scheme does not address the root cause that created the debt in the first place. For example, President Biden's policy does not hold colleges or universities accountable for rising costs. In the last 30 years, tuitions and fees have jumped at private nonprofit colleges--nonprofit colleges--by 80 percent. At public 4-year institutions, they jumped 124 percent.

College is one of the largest financial investments many Americans make, but there is little information for the student and her family to know that they are making the right decision for where they are attending or the amount they are borrowing. So my Republican colleagues and I recently introduced the Lowering Education Cost and Debt Act, a package of five bills aimed at directly addressing the issues driving skyrocketing costs of higher education and the increasing amounts of debts students take on to attend school.

By the way, some of these bills are by themselves. It is in a package, but you divide them out. Some of them are bipartisan in support and in sponsorship.

Our legislation puts downward pressure on tuition, empowers students to make the educational decisions that put them on track to succeed both academically and financially. We are providing solutions for students and working to solve the student debt crisis--not a bandaid that merely transfers the debt to someone else, someone who is oftentimes poor, less financially well-off, than the person who no longer has the responsibility to pay back the loan.

President Biden's student loan scheme is not a fix. It appears to be a politically motivated giveaway, forcing taxpayers to shoulder the responsibility of paying off someone else's debt. We need real leadership to address the issue.

I close by encouraging all my colleagues to join me in voting to pass this Congressional Review Act resolution to prevent this unfair student debt cancellation scheme--unfair to the hundreds of millions of Americans who will bear the burden of paying off hundreds of billions of dollars of someone else's student loan, a student loan they took to make more money than almost all of those other people.

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