Because an announcement is expected from the White House today regarding how it will address the topic of student loan debt cancellation, the timing is coincidental to report that a bill has been introduced in the House of Representatives that would prevent the Biden Administration from “enacting blanket student loan forgiveness.”
H.R. 8729, “The Debt Cancellation Accountability Act” was introduced last week by Rep. Warren Davidson [R-Ohio] and cosponsored by a baker’s dozen of fellow Republicans. Rep. Davidson’s bill is the first bill aimed at preventing the mass cancellation of student loans to be introduced in the House of Representatives. Similar bills have been previously introduced in the Senate, but have not made significant progress toward passage.
Rep. Davidson’s bill would require the Department of Education to obtain funding from Congress if it attempts to waive or discharge more than $100,000 in federal student loans for two or more borrowers. Bailing out students to the tune of $50,000 in loan cancellations each “would leave taxpayers with a $900 billion tab,” Rep. Davidson noted in a release announcing his proposed legislation. “It is not the responsibility of a self-taught farmer in Ohio to take on the financial burden of an Ivy League graduate in New York who willingly obtained a loan,” Rep. Davidson said in a statement.
Published reports have indicated that the White House may make an announcement as soon as today to detail plans to cancel $10,000 of student loan debt for anyone making less than $125,000 per year. If announced and executed, it would leave 15 million individuals entirely free of student loan debt. A moratorium on making federal student loan debt payments is scheduled to expire on August 31.
