Kansas AG sues to block Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan
Kansas AG Kris Kobach says Biden's new loan plan 'is just as illegal as the old plan'
Sen. Mike Lee: Biden doesn't have a right to cancel these loans, yet he defiantly persists
Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, discusses Biden's student loan handout plan and responding to the border crisis on 'Kudlow.'
Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach is leading a group of 11 states in filing a lawsuit against President Biden's latest attempt at student loan forgiveness on Thursday.
Kansas was among the six states who successfully challenged Biden's original student loan forgiveness program last year. Kobach says this latest program flies in the face of the Supreme Court's 2023 ruling and breaks many of the same rules.
"Not since the civil war has a president told the Supreme Court, ‘Yeah you blocked me, but I’m gonna do it anyway.’" Kobach told Fox News Digital in an interview. "Biden is trying to twist federal law once again, and his new plan is just as illegal as the old plan."
The states joining Kansas in the lawsuit are Alabama, Alaska, Idaho, Iowa, Louisiana, Montana, Nebraska, South Carolina, Texas and Utah.
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Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach led a group of six states in filing a lawsuit against President Biden's latest attempt at student loan forgiveness on Thursday. (Getty Images)
"A coalition of States sues Defendant Biden, as well as co-defendants the
Department of Education and Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona, to stop a second attempt to avoid Congress and pass an illegal student debt forgiveness. Last time Defendants tried this the Supreme Court said that this action was illegal. Nothing since then has changed," the lawsuit reads.
Biden announced his new $138 billion student loan plan in February, somewhat smaller than the $430 billion program from 2023.
"The Supreme Court blocked it, but that didn’t stop me," Biden boasted at the time.
An Education Department spokesperson defended Biden's SAVE plan in a statement to Fox News Digital when asked for comment on Thursday's lawsuit.
"The Department does not comment on pending litigation. However, Congress gave the U.S. Department of Education the authority to define the terms of income-driven repayment plans in 1993, and the SAVE plan is the fourth time the Department has used that authority," the spokesperson said. "The Biden-Harris Administration won’t stop fighting to provide support and relief to borrowers across the country – no matter how many times Republican elected officials try to stop us."
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Kobach says Biden's program seeks to reduce monthly loan payments to near zero by adjusting the terms of loan repayment, rather than forgiving the loans outright. The effect of the move is the same, however, and transfers mountains of debt onto American taxpayers.
Biden announced his new $138 billion student loan plan in February, somewhat smaller than the $430 billion program from 2023. (Getty Images)
The Kansas lawsuit further argues that Biden's move violates the Supreme Court's "major questions doctrine," in which Congress is presumed to retain authority to assign major policy decisions to an agency.
Kobach argues that forgiving $138 billion in student loan debt – a number he says has grown since Biden's announcement – is certainly a major policy decision falling under the purview of Congress.
Kobach went on to argue that the loan forgiveness program is simply bad policy, saying it shifts debt from some of America's most wealthy, upper class citizens onto all American taxpayers.
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"As a parent scraping to set aside money to help my own children get through college without taking on student loans, I feel the unfairness directly," Kobach wrote in a February op-ed for the Washington Free Beacon.
The Supreme Court struck down Biden's $430 billion student loan program in 2023 with a 6-3 vote. ((Photo by MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images) / Getty Images)
Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey also announced plans to challenge the student loan program on Thursday, saying Missouri and Arkansas would be filing in the coming days.
"Between our two coalitions of states, we will get this matter in front of a judge even more quickly to deliver a win for the American people. The Supreme Court sided with Missouri on this matter the first time. I look forward to bringing home yet another win for the Constitution and the rule of law," Bailey said in a statement.
Biden reaffirmed his commitment to the student loan push in a Tuesday statement on social media.
"From day one, I promised to fix broken student loan programs and make sure higher education is a ticket to the middle class, not a barrier to opportunity. I’m not backing down," Biden wrote.
Read the full Kansas lawsuit below. App users: click here.