Providing for Congressional Disapproval of the Rule Submitted By the Department of Education Relating to ``Waivers and Modifications of Federal Student Loans''

Floor Speech

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Ms. FOXX. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 429, I call up the joint resolution (H.J. Res. 45) providing for congressional disapproval under chapter 8 of title 5, United States Code, of the rule submitted by the Department of Education relating to ``Waivers and Modifications of Federal Student Loans,'' and ask for its immediate consideration in the House.

The Clerk read the title of the joint resolution.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.J. Res. 45, which would block the Biden administration's debt transfer scheme and prevent any further extension of the student loan repayment pause.

For Democrats, there is a specter looming over this debate, an incontrovertible truth that disproves all their supposed principles and contradicts all their virtue signaling.

Student loan cancellation is regressive. Let me repeat that for the Progressive Caucus. Student loan cancellation is regressive.

Two-thirds of this debt transfer plan would go to the top half of earners. It takes from those in the lower half and gives to the upper half. It redistributes wealth, but from the bottom of our socioeconomic ladder to the top.

For example, the repayment pause has provided $65,000 in de facto loan cancellation for the average lawyer. This is a professional-class bailout. More specifically, it is a professional-class, graduate-degree holder bailout. Of the loans that will be disbursed in 2024, 70 percent will be borrowed for graduate school. Nearly 40 percent of those people will go on to make over $100,000 annually in their careers. Those are the data absent partisan spin provided directly from the Department of Education.

The spin comes from the left when they use words like ``forgiveness.'' There is no such thing as forgiveness. The Biden administration is simply transferring the debt from borrowers who willingly took out student loans to hardworking taxpayers who did not. The 87 percent of Americans who hold no Federal student debt are paying for the 13 percent who do.

On top of that, the bailout is inflationary, which is always and everywhere a regressive working-class tax.

According to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, inflation could rise by as much as 27 basis points if mass student debt cancellation is implemented. Enacting mass student loan cancellation could also lead to an additional two rate hikes by the Federal Reserve.

Billionaires don't feel the effect of inflation. They don't notice when eggs cost $5.99 a dozen. They don't need to take out a mortgage to pay for their house, but working Americans do.

Inflation already has a vise grip on blue-collar America. In fact, The Hill reported yesterday that ``a record share of Americans in a new survey from the Federal Reserve Board say they are worse off financially than they were a year earlier.''

That is troubling and should be enough evidence alone to pass H.J. Res. 45 and nullify the Biden administration's deficit-increasing inflationary plan, but in typical limousine liberal fashion, Democrats want future taxpayers and hardworking Americans to foot the bill. Americans shouldn't buy it.

America also shouldn't buy accusations from the left that H.J. Res. 45 would charge borrowers backpay on interest payments. It couldn't be further from the truth.

Nowhere in this resolution does it mandate backpay. It is prospective, not retrospective. If anything, it would be Secretary Cardona's decision to enact backpay.

We know who will pay for the loans if the administration's plan is allowed to go forward. Those who will pay are those without degrees and those who paid off their debt, and those who can't afford to put gas in their cars or food on their table. The rest is just political noise.

Mr. Speaker, I urge Congress to cut through that noise and stop this administration from enacting the biggest transfer of wealth from blue- collar workers to white-collar professionals in our Nation's history.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support H.J. Res. 45, and I reserve the balance of my time.

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Ms. FOXX. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate my colleague's comments, but we are showing compassion to the 87 percent of the people in this country who played by the rules and paid their bills or didn't go to college. The 13 percent who did take out debt who haven't paid it back should show some similar compassion to their fellow human beings and not ask them to pay their bills.
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Ms. FOXX. Mr. Speaker, my colleagues want us to feel so sorry for these people who took out these loans and who are not going to pay them back. My colleague in the 12th District of North Carolina said 121,000 people in her district.

Mr. Speaker, you know who I am feeling sorry for? The 622,600 people who are being asked to pay off the bill that those 121,000 people took out willingly and have benefited from. This is a backward way of looking at things. Compassion should be shown to the 622,600 people who didn't take out the loan but are now being asked to pay it back.

Mr. Speaker, I rise, again, in support of H.J. Res. 45 and urge my colleagues to pass this bill.

The Democrats and the White House have accused Republicans of working against the interests of our constituents; however, this just shows how out of touch Democrats are with the realities of the people in my district.

While the White House likes to point to the fact that 75,000 of my constituents are eligible for the administration's bailout, they conveniently ignore that 675,000 of them, or over 90 percent, receive no benefit from this illegal scam.

Moreover, 212,000 of my constituents have never even set foot on a college campus. According to the National Taxpayers Union estimate, the administration's blanket loan cancellation and income-driven repayment plan will cost over $3,500 per constituent. This will cost the hardworking constituents in my district $1.2 billion alone.

Mr. Speaker, there is no such thing as debt forgiveness. The administration's student debt scheme simply transfers the cost from well-off college graduates to the backs of my constituents. I urge my colleagues to vote ``yes'' on H.J. Res. 45, and I reserve the balance of my time.

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Ms. FOXX. Mr. Speaker, I would let Representative Davis know that in Illinois 11,655,200 people don't have student debt, and they will be the ones bearing the cost of the transfer from 90,800 people.

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Ms. FOXX. Mr. Speaker, I think our colleagues on the other side of the aisle are doing their best to gaslight the 87 percent of their constituents who are going to be saddled with the debt from the 13 percent.

In Washington's 7th Congressional District, there are 686,200 people who don't have any college debt who are going to be asked to pay the debt off for 84,300 people.

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Ms. FOXX. Mr. Speaker, may I inquire as to how much time is remaining?
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Ms. FOXX. Mr. Speaker, I demand that words be taken down.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to point out that in the 10th District of Florida, 654,500 people will be paying the debt for 122,500 people.

Mr. Speaker, over the last two decades, tuition and fees have increased nearly three times the rate of inflation.

Democrats continually talk about how college is unaffordable yet fail to realize their failed policies exacerbate the problem of outrageous college costs.

More Federal aid and generous loan subsidies allow schools to increase their prices to capture those additional funds. Economists at the New York Federal Reserve found that for every $1 increase in student loan subsidies, colleges increased their tuition 60 cents. Another study found colleges reduced their own grant aid by as much as 83 cents for every dollar students receive in taxpayer student aid.

The Biden administration is telling borrowers that someone else will pay their loans and telling institutions that someone else will cover the cost of tuition.

It is no wonder the Congressional Budget Office found that the Biden administration's new income-driven repayment plan alone will increase student borrowing by 12 percent.

Let's work toward actually lowering college costs, not dumping hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars on well-off college graduates to make the problem worse.

Again, Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to vote ``yes'' on H.J. Res.

Mr. Speaker, we all know that access to college is available to every single person in this country. It is not a matter of access. It is a matter of who is paying back their loans.

Coupled with the permanent repayment pause, expansive new regulations, and a radical new income-driven repayment plan, the Biden administration's student loan scam could end up costing taxpayers $1 trillion. That is more than the Federal Government has ever spent on postsecondary education.

The Biden administration's policies do nothing to solve the root issues of student debt. If this bailout moves forward, then outstanding student debt will return to current levels in just over 5 years. We will be right back here again.

The Federal student loan system is broken, and real reform is needed. Simply put, the administration's action will mean that future students will come to expect their loans will be canceled, and colleges will continue to increase already skyrocketing tuition because they know Democrats will leave taxpayers to foot the bill.

We need to hold colleges accountable for charging outrageous prices for degrees with no value. We need a student loan program that has the best interests of students and taxpayers in mind.

As the institution that holds the power of the purse, Congress has the responsibility to protect the interest of taxpayers. A vote in support of today's resolution will do just that.

Again, Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to vote ``yes'' on H.J. Res. 45, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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