Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich filed another lawsuit against the Biden administration on Thursday, challenging the president’s authority to cancel student loan debt. He argued that it goes contrary to several recent Supreme Court decisions striking down federal agencies’ assertion of power never granted to them by Congress. The Biden administration intends to cancel $10,000 to $20,000 of student loan debt for people who make less than $125,000 or $250,000 annually for a married person filing jointly.
In his lawsuit, Brnovich said, “This loan cancellation … is a naked handout by one administration and one party to favored political classes (college graduates and those employed by the higher education industry) at the expense of taxpayers everywhere.”
Brnovich labeled the move “the most expensive unilateral executive action ever attempted by any President,” which “further inflicts greater harm on the fiscal solvency of the United States than any other Presidential action ever.” This is because “its cost exceeds the entire amount that Congress has appropriated for the Department of Education for the last five years.”
The brief noted how even Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA-12) said last year that President Joe Biden does not have that authority, only Congress. The Department of Education issued an opinion to then-Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos in January 2021 reiterating this position. Even Biden himself questioned in February 2021 whether he had the authority to cancel student loan debt unless it was a small amount like $10,000, and White House officials clarified later that even the $10,000 reference meant congressional approval.
Biden justified the debt cancellation by invoking the Higher Education Relief Opportunities for Students Act of 2003 (HEROES Act).
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