While the Biden administration and Democratic representatives work together to find the proper amount and method to cancel student loan debt for 43 million Americans, Republicans have decided to try to block it. Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT), along with four other Republican senators, have introduced a bill to stop any student loan forgiveness, Business Insider reports.
The Student Loan Accountability Act would prohibit Biden’s Education, Justice, and Treasury Departments from taking any action to cancel or forgive student-loan borrowers’ outstanding balances or even portions of those balances. As far as exceptions, the bill will only allow for student-loan forgiveness, cancellation, and repayment programs already in effect, such as the Public Service Loan Forgiveness and Teacher Loan Forgiveness programs.
Sen. Romney previously called the potential action a” bribe for voters.”
“It makes no sense for the Biden Administration to cancel nearly $2 trillion in student loan debt,” Romney said in a statement, seemingly referring to the unlikely scenario in which the president canceled the entirety of America’s student-loan debt.
“This decision would not only be unfair to those who already repaid their loans or decided to pursue alternative education paths, but it would be wildly inflationary at a time of already historic inflation,” the senator added.
With a 50/50 split in the Senate and Democrats in control of the House and Presidency, this measure has virtually no chance of passing. Republican lawmakers sponsoring the bill like Sens. Richard Burr and Thom Tillis of North Carolina and Tim Scott of South Carolina, said student-loan forgiveness would raise inflation rates, worsen inequality, and incentivize colleges and universities to continue raising tuition.
However, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen stated last week that forgiveness could be “good for the economy” and “there are some trade-offs involved that need to be analyzed” in a Senate hearing.