Republican senators unveiled a package of five bills to address the exploding cost of college — in a pushback on President Biden’s student debt cancellation.
The GOP-led package is unlikely to make it to a vote in the Democrat-led Senate, but comes as borrowers across the country must start paying their student loan bills for the first time since 2020.
As part of the negotiated Biden-McCarthy debt limit agreement passed last month, federal student borrowers must begin repaying loans no later than Aug. 29.
The Supreme Court is expected to rule separately on the Biden administration’s student debt relief plan by the end of June. The $400 billion plan forgives up to $20,000 in student debt for those earning less than $125,000.
A group of GOP senators on the Committee on Health Education, Labor and Retirements (HELP) launched their own proposal on Wednesday to address rising college tuition costs, blaming easy federal student loans as the driving factor behind rapidly rising college prices.
Republican senators unveiled a package of five bills to address the exploding cost of college attendance — in a pushback on President Biden’s student debt cancellation
Sens. Bill Cassidy, R-La., John Cornyn, R-Texas, Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Steve Daines, R-Mont., all wrote bills included in the package.
‘The past 35 years have shown that a blank check from the government to the universities has only made the problems worse. Unlimited government borrowing has done nothing to improve access to education,” Tuberville said. “Today we’re here to say enough is enough.”
The proposal caps credit for graduate students — meaning students pursuing higher education can no longer borrow unlimited money from the federal government. The package would only allow $20,500 in aid each year for a graduate degree.
For those in professional programs like med school, that limit would be $40,500 per year.
College student debt has skyrocketed in recent decades — college graduates now take out nearly half of new student loans.
It would also prevent federal aid from going to certain programs at a university if the earnings of graduates in that program prove to be too low.
The median income of graduates with a bachelor’s degree in a given program 10 years after completion must exceed the median income of working adults aged 25-34 with only a high school diploma.
Asked if the program was designed to weed out support for liberal arts majors, HELP ranking member Cassidy said, “If the degree you’re taking is $50,000 a year, you have $200,000 in cumulative debt, and you have $40,000 a year. year is going to pay, I don’t think the taxpayer should be subsidizing it.
It would also streamline repayment through just two options: a standard 10-year repayment plan or an income-related repayment plan.
The package would also reform the college data reporting system to provide greater transparency on points such as retention rates, college costs and post-college outcomes. Higher education should use a uniform financial aid letter.
At the same time, the Republican proposal from Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., unveiled a bill to make all public colleges free.
“You’ll never know how expensive something is until you make it free,” Cassidy said in response to the proposal.
Cassidy also broke Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan, which is currently on hold in the judicial system pending the Supreme Court’s ruling.
Cassidy also ripped on Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan, which is currently on hold in the court system pending the Supreme Court’s ruling.
“Biden’s plan does nothing to fuel the root cause of the debt crisis,” he said.
“If this student debt transfer goes into effect, students and taxpayers, we will be in the same situation again in five years — the total debt will be $1.6 at that point. trillion dollars,” Cassidy said, citing figures from the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.
‘This is not a solution. This is just a Band-Aid.’
Outstanding federal student loans amount to approximately $1.6 trillion dollars held by approximately 43 million Americans.
Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Wednesday that the White House has “confidence” in the legal avenues for the aid plan to proceed, regardless of the Supreme Court’s outcome.
“We leave it to the Justice Department to continue to protect a plan the president says is incredibly important to American families.”