A joint resolution 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".

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.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the resolution under consideration.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

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.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Good), the author of this resolution and the chair of the Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions Subcommittee.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Walberg), a member of the Committee on Education and the Workforce.

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.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Allen), a member of the Committee on Education and the Workforce.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Bean), chair of the Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education Subcommittee.

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 yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Illinois (Mrs. Miller), the vice chair of the Committee on Education and the Workforce.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

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.

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.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Rose).

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.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Texas (Mr. Moran), who is a member of the Education and Workforce Committee.

Mr. Speaker, may I inquire as to how much time is remaining?

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I demand that words be taken down.

Mr. Speaker, I have no objection.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 2\1/2\ minutes.

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. 45, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I am prepared to close whenever the gentleman from Virginia is prepared, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time to close.

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.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to H.J. Res. 45, and I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, 43 million Americans are eligible for President Biden's student loan relief. That is about 100,000 people, on average, in each of our districts.

Nearly 26 million borrowers in congressional districts all over the country have already applied for relief, including 16 million who had already been approved for relief prior to litigation stopping the process. H.J. Res. 45 seeks to deny these borrowers the relief that they were promised.

To be clear, the people who would be impacted are not the wealthy and well-connected. Mr. Speaker, 90 percent of the relief would go to borrowers earning less than $75,000 a year, and you are not even eligible if you are making more than $125,000. That is in stark contrast to the Trump tax scam where 80 percent of the benefits went to the

top 1 percent and corporations. For the top 1 percent, that is about half a million dollars.

Moreover, my Republican colleagues refuse to acknowledge the serious questions that have been raised about how the resolution would actually be implemented, because under a Congressional Review Act resolution, you don't pick and choose which parts of the rule you are overturning, you have to overturn the whole rule, including the pause in student payments and the deferral of interest.

Now, how do you unpause a payment that you were supposed to make many months ago? What is going to happen to all those interest payments that now have to be added back to those loans?

What happens to the credits that participants in the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program were promised during those months?

Are the firefighters and teachers and police officers and other public servants who may have already had their loans forgiven based on those credits, now back on the hook for additional payments?

The reality is that H.J. Res. 45 would trigger a wave of delinquencies and defaults for most of our vulnerable borrowers. Intentionally or not, this resolution would create chaos for borrowers and their families, as well as loan servicers. The Congressional Research Service has confirmed that this chaos would be triggered by the retroactive application of this rule.

Mr. Speaker, anyone in this country who wants to take advantage of the benefits of a college education should be able to do so, not just the wealthy few. That is the way it used to be.

Just several decades ago, the Pell grant covered 80 percent of the cost of attending a State college. Now it is less than 30 percent, and States are paying a much lower portion of the costs of State colleges than they used to.

This proposal does nothing to help students, so I strongly urge my colleagues to oppose the resolution.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record a letter from approximately 200 different organizations in opposition to this resolution.

May 8, 2023.

Hon. Chuck Schumer,

Majority Leader, U.S. Senate,

Washington, DC.

Hon. Kevin McCarthy,

Speaker, House of Representatives,

Washington, DC.

Hon. Mitch McConnell,

Minority Leader, U.S. Senate,

Washington, DC.

Hon. Hakeem Jeffries,

Democratic Leader, U.S. House of Representatives,

Washington, DC.

Leader Schumer, Minority Leader McConnell, Speaker

McCarthy, and Minority Leader Jeffries: The undersigned 261

organizations representing millions of students, workers,

people of color, veterans, people with disabilities,

consumers, and people of faith write in strong opposition to

bicameral efforts to use the Congressional Review Act (CRA)

to overturn President Biden's actions to pause student loan

payments and provide student debt relief for low-income and

working-class Americans continuing to recover from the deadly

COVID-19 pandemic and its devastating economic fallout.

In March, policymakers in the House and Senate unveiled a

CRA resolution to retroactively overturn the pause of federal

student loan payments and interest accrual, and President

Biden's debt relief plan. If successful, these CRA efforts

would immediately force tens of millions of borrowers into

abrupt and unplanned repayment with devastating effects,

including adding thousands of dollars of payments and

interest onto their loan balances. It will also force the

Department of Education to unwind loans forgiven under Public

Service Loan Forgiveness for first responders, nurses,

educators, servicemembers, and hundreds of thousands of other

public service workers across the country. These actions are

a clear attack on millions of the most vulnerable workers and

families who are still reeling from the devastating impact of

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Wilson), the ranking member of the Subcommittee on Higher Education and Workforce Development.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson Lee).

Mr. Speaker, I yield an additional 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Texas.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.

First, I include in the Record letters from the American Federation of Teachers, another letter from multiple unions including the National Education Association, the AFL-CIO and AFSCME, a letter from Minority Vets, a letter from UnidosUS and the National Urban League, a letter from Third Way, a letter from the National Council of Nonprofits, and a letter from 23 various medical organizations, all in opposition to the legislation.

American Federation of Teachers,

May 22, 2023.

House of Representatives,

Washington, DC.

Dear Representative: On behalf of the 1.7 million members

of the American Federation of Teachers, I strongly urge you

to reject H.J. Res. 45/S.J. Res. 22, a joint resolution

providing for congressional disapproval of the Biden

administration actions to support student loan borrowers that

were announced in August of last year.

This resolution would immediately force tens of millions of

borrowers into abrupt and unplanned repayment with

devastating effects, including adding thousands of dollars of

interest onto their loan balances. Proponents of the

resolution want you to believe that it is simply a method to

stop President Joe Biden's student debt cancellation of up to

$20,000 that would benefit 43 million borrowers, but the

implications are more severe. Passage of this resolution

would be particularly destructive for teachers, nurses,

servicemembers and firefighters eligible for Public Service

Loan Forgiveness.

This resolution would force the U.S. Department of

Education to unwind loans forgiven under Public Service Loan

Forgiveness for nurses, educators, servicemembers and

hundreds of thousands of other public service workers across

the country. Retroactively repealing months of the payment

pause initially authorized by the Trump administration would

have far greater implications than thwarting Biden's

cancellation plan. It would force teachers, veterans and

nurses who finally received Public Service Loan Forgiveness

to write a check back to the Department of Education. This

resolution would reinstate the debt of more than 150,000

public service workers. On the heels of the pandemic, forcing

a nurse to pay back debt that was legally forgiven under a

bipartisan law is cruel.

And the harm wouldn't stop there: More than 400,000

borrowers have received PSLF-qualifying payments under the

last payment pause of 2022, but this resolution would claw

back those benefits, setting back firefighters and educators'

eligibility for PSLF for many months.

The COVID-19 pandemic had a devastating impact on American

workers, many of whom were already struggling to make ends

meet.

Those workers' precarity and risk of delinquency on their

debt has severely worsened during the pandemic. Given the

long-term economic impacts of the pandemic, which continue to

drive workers out of public service, a permanent solution,

rather than a temporary deferment, is necessary.

And the law is clear: Student debt cancellation falls

squarely within the statutory authority Congress granted the

secretaIy in the HEROES Act. Cancellation will help ensure

that millions of people are not left in a ``worse position''

as to their loan payments due to the devastating COVID-19

pandemic.

Tens of millions of families are struggling under the yoke

of $1.7 trillion in student debt. They eagerly await the

breathing room that student debt relief would bring, and

those struggling to get by will benefit the most. The extra

consideration in debt cancellation for Pell recipients

focuses like a laser on people in need. Taking away relief

that has already been granted to borrowers--the moratorium on

payments and interest--while the legal challenge wends its

way through the courts, and retroactively making them pay

what they cannot afford, is cruel. These borrowers are

teachers, firefighters, nurses and so many other dedicated

workers. Their current student debt is a far greater burden

than the debt carried by those of us who went to college long

ago. This means they have little or no wealth to start a

family, buy a car or a house, or make other major life

decisions, and it undermines plans they responsibly made

based on the situation at the time.

Congress should be building on the Biden administration

actions, not undermining those actions. Throwing tens of

millions of student loan borrowers into chaos by

retroactively adding interest and missed payments to their

loan balances, while extending their student debt sentence,

would upend lives. That's the wrong decision. Congress must

oppose H.J. Res. 45/S.J. Res. 22.

Sincerely,

Randi Weingarten,

President, American Federation of Teachers.

Mr. Speaker, there are many challenges we have in higher education that demand our attention: the rising cost of college, student debt crisis, the eroded value of the Pell grant, student mental health issues, and the list goes on.

Instead, we are addressing this resolution which will hurt millions of student borrowers and their families; an average of about 100,000 in each of our districts.

Many of our colleagues on the other side have justified the resolution by arguing that we cannot afford the plan, yet ignoring that we were willing to charge taxpayers $1.9 trillion for a tax package a few years ago that overwhelmingly benefited the top 1 percent and corporations. Now they are unwilling to spend much less than that to help students pay for their education.

We should be passing proposals that meaningfully support borrowers and make college more affordable for current and future students. The bottom line is that we have a responsibility to strengthen support for those seeking college degrees. Those who want a degree should be able to access that opportunity.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to oppose the proposal, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to H.J. Res. 45.

Forty-three million Americans are eligible for President Biden's student loan relief. That is an average of almost 100,000 people in each of our districts.

Nearly 26 million borrowers in congressional districts all over the country have already applied for relief, including 16 million who have already been approved prior to litigation stopping the process. H.J. Res. 45 seeks to deny these borrowers the relief they were promised.

To be clear, the people who would be impacted the most are not the wealthy and well-connected. Ninety percent of the relief would go to borrowers earning less than $75,000 a year. You are not even eligible if you are making over $125,000 a year. That is in stark contrast, of course, to the Trump tax scam, where 80 percent of the benefits went to the top 1 percent and corporations.

Moreover, my Republican colleagues refuse to acknowledge the serious questions that have been raised about how the resolution would actually be implemented because, under the Congressional Review Act resolution, you don't get to pick and choose which parts of a rule you are overturning. You have to overturn the whole rule, including the pause in student loan payments and the deferral of interest.

How do you unpause a payment that you were supposed to make many months ago? What is going to happen to all those interest payments that now have to be added back to the loans? That is about $233 per month in interest and principal.

What happens to the credits that participants in the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program were promised during those months? Are these firefighters, teachers, police officers, and other public servants who may have had their loans forgiven now on the hook for four additional payments?

The reality is that H.J. Res. 45 would trigger a wave of delinquencies and defaults for our most vulnerable borrowers. Intentionally or not, this resolution would create chaos for borrowers and their families, as well as loan servicers.

The Congressional Research Service has confirmed that this chaos would be triggered by the retroactive application of this rule.

Mr. Speaker, anyone in the country who wants to take advantage of the benefits of a college education should be able to do so, not just the wealthy few. That is the way it used to be just several decades ago. Pell grants covered 80 percent of the cost of attending a State college. Now, it is less than 30 percent. When adjusted for inflation, States are paying less for State colleges than they used to.

Mr. Speaker, this proposal does nothing to help students pay for their college education, so I strongly urge my colleagues to oppose the resolution.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I remind my colleague from Virginia that over 90,000 borrowers in his district will be denied relief if this resolution is enacted.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. Clyburn), the assistant Democratic leader for the U.S. House of Representatives.

Mr. Speaker, I remind my colleague from Michigan that over 90,000 borrowers in his district will be denied relief if this resolution is enacted.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Oregon (Ms. Bonamici).

Mr. Speaker, I remind my colleague from Georgia that over 110,000 borrowers from his district would be denied relief if this resolution is enacted.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from California (Mr. Takano), the ranking member of the Committee on Veterans' Affairs.

Mr. Speaker, I remind my colleague from Florida that almost 120,000 borrowers from his district will be denied relief if this resolution is enacted.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from North Carolina (Ms. Adams), the ranking member of the Workforce Protections Subcommittee.

Mr. Speaker, I yield an additional 30 seconds to the gentlewoman from North Carolina.

Mr. Speaker, I remind my colleague from Illinois that over 75,000 borrowers from her district will be denied debt relief if this resolution is enacted.

Mr. Speaker, may I inquire as to the time remaining.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from California (Mr. Garcia).

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Davis).

Mr. Speaker, I remind my colleague from Tennessee that 89,000 borrowers from his district will be denied relief if this resolution is enacted.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Washington (Ms. Jayapal), a member of the Education and Workforce Committee.

Mr. Speaker, I remind my colleague from Texas that over 88,000 borrowers from his district will be denied relief if this resolution is enacted.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Michigan (Ms. Tlaib).

Mr. Speaker, may I inquire as to how much time is remaining?

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Frost).

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Kamlager-Dove).

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentlewoman from Massachusetts (Ms. Pressley).

Mr. Speaker, I yield an additional 30 seconds to the gentlewoman from Massachusetts.

Mr. Speaker, I am prepared to close, and I yield myself the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, there are many challenges we have in higher education that demand our attention: the rising costs of higher education, the student debt crisis, the eroded value of the Pell grant, and mental health issues. The list goes on.

Instead of addressing these challenges, we are trying to force through a resolution that hurts tens of millions of student borrowers and their families, an average of almost 100,000 in each of our districts.

Many of my colleagues on the other side have justified this resolution by arguing that we can't afford it, but it is just a matter of priorities.

Congressional Republicans are willing to charge taxpayers more than twice as much for a tax package where 80 percent of the benefits were scheduled to go to the top 1 percent and corporations, but now they are unwilling to invest half that amount to help student borrowers pay for their education.

We should be passing proposals that meaningfully support borrowers and make college more affordable for current and future borrowers.

The bottom line is that it is our responsibility to strengthen the support for those seeking a college degree because those who want a college degree should be able to access that opportunity. That opportunity should not be reserved for just the wealthy few.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to oppose H.J. Res. 45, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. Speaker, for purposes of debate only, I yield the customary 30 minutes to the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Scott), the ranking member of the Committee on Education and the Workforce, pending which I yield myself such time as I may consume.

General Leave

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the veto message of H.J. Res. 45.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of overriding President Biden's veto of H.J. Res. 45, a Congressional Review Act resolution nullifying the Biden administration's attempt to circumvent the will of the Congress and the role of the Congress of the United States.

Mr. Speaker, President Biden's radical plan to cancel up to $20,000 in student debt via executive fiat is utter hogwash. The American people are not fooled by the deceptive, doctored-up talking points on student loans that the left has attempted to force-feed them over the past 2 years.

Appealing words like ``forgiveness'' have been cast around innumerable times as if to imply that a massive student loan bailout is the equivalent of a sweepstakes giveaway.

Here is a reality check for our colleagues across the aisle: There is no such thing as forgiveness.

This entire scheme is nothing more than a transfer of wealth from those who willingly took on debt to those who did not or had the grit to pay off their loans.

Two-thirds of this debt transfer plan would go to the top half of earners. It takes from those in the lower half of earners and gives to the upper half. It redistributes wealth, but from the bottom of our socioeconomic ladder to the top. The 87 percent of Americans who owe no Federal student debt are paying for the 13 percent who do.

Our colleagues on the other side of the aisle also claim that this transfer of wealth is about fairness. No, it is about sticking hardworking taxpayers with the tab and those who owe it walking away from it scot-free.

Mr. Speaker, if this is not the textbook definition of limousine liberalism, I don't know what it is.

What is more, 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. That means we could see an additional two rate hikes by the Federal Reserve because of this inflationary policy alone.

To halt the biggest transfer of wealth from blue-collar workers to white-collar professionals in our Nation's history and to prevent any further extension of the student loan repayment pause, the House and Senate both passed H.J. Res. 45.

Following the President's predictable veto, this resolution comes before the House again. We must continue to take a stand and defend the interests of hardworking citizens. As the institution that holds the power of the purse, it is our responsibility to do so.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to cut through the political noise that the left continues to gin up about so-called student loan forgiveness and vote in favor of overriding the President's veto on H.J. Res. 45.

Fiscal responsibility must be given the due deference it deserves.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Good).

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

My colleagues have said that this is overdrawn in terms of the way the CRA was written, the Congressional Review Act was written, and that it does too much. It gets into too many other things other than simply turning back the President's proposal. It deals with the debt and repayment of debt and those kinds of things.

However, this CRA does not in any way tie the hands of Congress. It is up to us to pass the laws.

What it does do is stop unelected bureaucrats from writing laws in the form of rules to implement laws passed by Congress.

We didn't authorize the Department to do many of the things that it is doing. Congress did not do that, but it is doing many things.

The CRA will stop the President's actions and some of these other things that are happening. We have the authority to write legislation, to do whatever we want to. If we want to write legislation to take care of debt and to take care of interest rates, we can do that.

Forgive me, Mr. Speaker, for not crying crocodile tears along with my colleagues on the accessibility to college in this country. College in this country is accessible to anyone who has the capable skills to attend, or taxpayers covering the costs of college for many who can pay for themselves and many who simply take advantage of generous taxpayers by skipping out on their loans.

That is not what the help from taxpayers is supposed to do. It is supposed to help people gain a college education and go out there and be productive citizens, not renege on paying back their loans.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, the Biden administration is destroying the Federal student aid system that has balanced providing millions of students access to opportunities for post-secondary education while respecting the interest of taxpayers who fund these opportunities.

Democrats know their radical free college agenda won't make it through Congress, so instead they are forcing it down Americans' throats by executive fiat through the student loan program. Obfuscation about the details has allowed the department to tout alleged benefits without facing any scrutiny over the implications of these radical changes; however, the facts, which this administration has tried to push under the rug, prove its agenda is nothing more than an attempt to skirt the law and enact policies that would never pass Congress.

These actions will leave colleges free to continue increasing costs that greatly impact all American taxpayers. These policies deny any accountability to borrowers and evade any responsibility to help those students turn their degrees into a job.

Mr. Speaker, I urge a ``yes'' vote on the override of the President's veto, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I thank Chair Foxx for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, I am proud to be the sponsor of this resolution of disapproval under the Congressional Review Act to hold President Biden accountable for his reckless, unfair, unlawful, unconstitutional student loan transfer scheme.

President Biden simply does not have the authority to ``forgive'' loans and thereby spend, unilaterally, more than $300 billion.

In fact, he even admitted that to CNN host Anderson Cooper in February 2021, saying: ``I don't think I have the authority to do it by signing with a pen.''

Democrats, in fact, knew he didn't have the power to do it and advised him not to.

Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, on July 28, 2021, said: ``People think that the President of the United States has the power for debt forgiveness. He does not. He can postpone. He can delay. But he does not have that power. That has to be an act of Congress.''

My friends and colleagues on the other side of the aisle piled on.

Representative Jared Golden of Maine said: ``This decision by the President is out of touch with what the majority of the American people want from the White House, which is leadership to address the most immediate challenges the country is facing.''

Representative Chris Pappas of New Hampshire said: ``This announcement by President Biden is no way to make policy and sidesteps Congress and our oversight and fiscal responsibilities. Any plan to address student debt should go through the legislative process, and it should be more targeted and paid for so it doesn't add to the deficit.''

Representative Sharice Davids of Kansas said: ``It is not how I would have addressed this issue.''

Yet, the President decided yet again to act unconstitutionally. Like the timing of the depletion of our Strategic Petroleum Reserve, this so-called student loan transfer scheme--interesting timing--was just before the election.

Despite his better judgment, a barrage of legal challenges, and this current effort by this Congress to nullify his actions, President Biden has preemptively announced that he will veto my resolution. I invite the President to reconsider his position.

Federal involvement in higher education, as a matter of fact, has done nothing to bring down the cost of college. In fact, for every $1 increase in student loan subsidies, colleges have increased their tuition by 60 cents. All across the country, more than 92 percent of all student loan debt comes from Federal loans, totaling over $1.6 trillion.

This debt is held by just 13 percent of the population--in fact, the most elite 13 percent. It is estimated that two-thirds of the student loan transfer scheme would go to the top half of earners, not to mention that 70 percent of the debt is owed by students who went to graduate school.

Mr. Speaker, 60 percent of the constituents in my district don't even have a college degree. Yet, the Biden administration wants them to have to pay for the education of others who will have a significantly higher lifetime earning potential.

Student loan cancellation doesn't make the debt actually go away. It simply shifts the costs from the student loan borrower and transfers it to hardworking American taxpayers.

It is also worth mentioning the key role this policy plays in the fiscal health of our Nation as we address our debt ceiling. The principle of this resolution, nullifying President Biden's student loan transfer scheme, was one of the key provisions of the Limit, Save, Grow Act. Saving $315 billion by simply asking Americans to honor their commitment to pay back their own student loans will help us get our country's spending under control.

Student loan borrowers are responsible for the debt they incurred, and Congress is responsible for the $32 trillion that we have spent.

House Republicans take that seriously, which is why, a month ago, we passed a plan to responsibly raise the debt limit while providing historic savings for the American people.

Mr. Speaker, I invite Representative Pelosi and my colleagues on the other side of the aisle to stand by their word and vote with me today in favor of this resolution to nullify President Biden's student loan transfer scheme. Congress must reclaim its power and act today to stop the unilateral action of President Biden that is exacerbating the higher education financial crisis.

Additionally, my resolution will do what should have been done a long time ago: End the student loan repayment pause that has already cost taxpayers $195 billion.

In short, this bill is needed to help steer our government spending in a more responsible direction, and I urge all of my colleagues on both sides to support this commonsense legislation and vote in favor of this resolution.