The GOP bill would cancel both of Biden’s marquee student debt proposals: a one-time cancellation of up to $20,000 for more than 40 million Americans, and an updated loan repayment plan that could slash monthly payments for millions., forcing borrowers into repayment sooner than planned.
Biden has threatened to veto the legislation, and his student debt cancellation plan is seen as untouchable by some Senate Democrats who may well kill the bill. Some of the strongest champions of cancellation have included Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.
. Unlike the GOP lawsuits, however, the new legislation takes aim at the full suite of Biden’s student debt plans, including a proposed repayment plan that has mostly avoided the type of scrutiny that mass cancellation has seen.Biden's payment option would mostly replace four existing “income-driven repayment” plans with much more generous terms.
Going a step further, the Republican plan would permanently bar the Education Department from issuing any future regulation that raises costs for the federal student aid program. That would amount to a dramatic shift in the way the agency does business. The impact of the bill goes far beyond student debt. The Education Department estimates it would require a 22% budget cut across some of its biggest programs.