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The American Federation of Teachers and the Student Borrower Protection Center say in a new report that an effort to block the Biden administration’s debt-relief plan would do far more than just that, throwing “a monkey wrench” in the student loan system and the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program.
The report says the student loans of more than 260,000 public servants would be reinstated under the Congressional Review Act resolution. Another two million workers would lose progress toward debt relief under Public Service Loan Forgiveness.
House Republicans have said the resolution is not retroactive and wouldn’t reinstate payments or roll back credits toward relief in the PSLF program.
“The extremists who are pushing this are not being truthful about what this is,” AFT president Randi Weingarten said during a press conference about the report.
The report was released the day before the House of Representatives was expected to vote on a resolution that would overturn the Biden administration’s plan to forgive up to $20,000 in student loans for eligible Americans. Under the Congressional Review Act, only a simple majority of lawmakers in the House and Senate need to vote in favor of the resolution to block the administration from carrying out the rule.
Student Borrower Protection Center executive director Mike Pierce said the resolution would also roll back the two recent extensions of the student loan payment pause, dating back to October 2022, and any actions taken during those pauses. That includes giving borrowers who have applied for Public Service Loan Forgiveness credit toward forgiveness each month during the pause despite the fact they weren’t making payments.
The administration also has discharged loans of eligible borrowers as they reached the qualifying number of payments—120.
“Taking back student debt relief already delivered to public service workers is reckless, cruel, unjust, and un-American,” Pierce said in a statement.
President Biden has said he would veto the resolution if it reached his desk.
