The Biden administration filed an emergency appeal to the Supreme Court over the president’s legacy student loan plan.
The appeal is a response to a lower court ruling which prevents Biden from enacting his Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) Plan, which aims to lower student loan payments.
“The rule is a straightforward exercise of the Department’s express statutory authority to set the parameters of income-contingent repayment plans — just as it has done for three decades,” U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar argued.
Prelogar included a backup plan should the justices decide not to act on the emergency request. She alternatively asked them to judge the legality of the plan based on the merits and expedite it so arguments can be held before the election.
Biden came up with the SAVE Plan after the Supreme Court struck down his earlier plan to forgive at least $10,000 to borrowers.
The SAVE Plan’s first act began last year, when it raised the threshold for incomes protected from payments to 225 percent above the federal poverty line and waived accrued unpaid interest outside calculated amounts.
The second act was intended to being in July, which would have dropped payments on undergraduate loans to 5% of discretionary income among other loan forgiveness options for special interest groups.
But it was halted as two groups of Republican state attorney generals argued the plan requires authorization from Congress due to its massive price tag.
The Penn Wharton Budget Model estimates the SAVE plan would cost $475 billion over 10 years.
The states – consisting of Missouri, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, North Dakota, Ohio and Oklahoma – convinced the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday to issue an injunction temporarily blocking the SAVE Plan.
Another group of states – Alaska, South Carolina, and Texas – are separately urging the Supreme Court to block key options of the SAVE Plan.
They say it is “increasingly plain that the federal government will continue to try give away nearly a half-trillion dollars of the public’s money.”
This so called (SAVE) Plan should be called buy a (VOTE) Plan. What about all of the other people who worked and paid their way through College, do they get any monetary relief, I don’t think so.