Mitt Romney and fellow Republicans introduce bill that would stop Biden from canceling student-loan debt

Mitt Romney stands outside the Senate Chambers.
Mitt Romney speaking to reporters outside the Senate Chamber during a series of votes in the US Capitol on May 11 in Washington, DC.Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
  • Five Republican senators introduced a bill this week that would prohibit student-loan forgiveness.

  • The legislation bars Biden from taking any action to cancel or forgive borrowers' balances.

  • The bill is unlikely to become law anytime soon with a 50-50 Senate and Democratic-controlled House.

Student-loan borrowers eager for broad debt forgiveness will be out of luck if Sen. Mitt Romney has anything to say about it.

On Wednesday, the lawmaker from Utah and several of his Republican colleagues introduced a bill that would bar the Biden administration from broadly canceling student-loan debt — a political move the president has been considering since he took office last year.

The Student Loan Accountability Act would prohibit Biden's Education, Justice, and Treasury Departments from taking any action that would cancel or forgive student-loan borrowers' outstanding balances or even portions of those balances, a Wednesday press release said.

Video: How credit card companies get you to spend more money

The bill would include exemptions for student-loan forgiveness, cancelation, and repayment programs that are already in effect, such as the Public Service Loan Forgiveness and Teacher Loan Forgiveness programs.

Republican Sens. Richard Burr and Thom Tillis of North Carolina, Tim Scott of South Carolina, and Bill Cassidy of Louisiana joined Romney in introducing the bill in Congress this week.

The bill is unlikely to become law anytime soon with a 50-50 Senate, a Democratic-controlled House, and Biden in the Oval Office.

More than 40 million Americans hold more than $1.7 trillion in student-loan debt. On the campaign trail in 2020, Biden promised to forgive $10,000 per borrower, but more than a year into his presidency, little movement has been made on broad forgiveness.

"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.

Several times in a Wednesday press release, the lawmakers said Biden's legal authority to forgive or cancel swaths of student-loan debt is "legally dubious." Earlier this year, Ron Klain, the White House chief of staff, said the president was exploring his legal options for possible forgiveness.

Recent indications from the White House suggest Biden is considering student-loan forgiveness of at least $10,000 per borrower through executive action, though questions remain about who would be eligible.

The Republican lawmakers sponsoring the bill said student-loan forgiveness would raise inflation rates, worsen inequality, and incentivize colleges and universities to continue raising tuition. A May analysis found that Biden's $10,000 plan would cost the government $321 billion.

But despite the controversy around the policy, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said last week that student-loan forgiveness "could be good for the economy."

"There are some trade-offs involved that need to be analyzed," she said during a Senate hearing.

Meanwhile, Democrats and advocates are continuing to urge Biden to consider even more forgiveness, with progressives pushing for $50,000 per borrower — an amount the president himself has said he wasn't considering.

Romney has previously spoken out against student-loan forgiveness, calling it a "bribe" for voters. He's said it could be a slippery slope that leads to broad forgiveness for other types of debt.

Read the original article on Business Insider