Foxx, Cassidy Call Out Administration’s Potential $1 Trillion Student Loan Repayment Scheme, Rushed Public Review Process
February 3, 2023
Today, Education and the Workforce Committee Chairwoman Virginia Foxx (R-NC) and Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee Republican Leader Bill Cassidy (R-LA) rebuked the administration’s reckless Income-Driven Repayment (IDR) rule proposal and called on Education Secretary Miguel Cardona to extend the rushed public comment period.
On January 11th, the Department of Education released a proposed rule on IDR, which would reduce the amount of student loan debt borrowers will have to pay back by 40 percent. The administration estimates the plan will cost taxpayers at least $138 billion over the next ten years, but a non-partisan student loan expert has estimated that the true cost could be $1 trillion. This is a separate proposal from the administration’s loan cancelation effort that is currently before the Supreme Court and is estimated to cost taxpayers $400 billion.
“This proposed regulation would cut future borrowers’ payments in half and eliminate the expectation for these borrowers to pay back even the principal on their loan. This would fundamentally break our higher education financing system.” said the lawmakers. “This rule would route hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars towards college-educated middle- and upper-income individuals and away from our constituents who never went to college or worked hard to pay off their loans.”
