Utah Valley Times

U.S. Senator Mitt Romney (R-UT) has led a group of Republican senators in re-introducing the Student Loan Accountability Act, a bill aimed at preventing the Biden Administration from canceling student loan debt. The legislation is co-sponsored by Senators Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-LA), Tim Scott (R-SC), and Thom Tillis (R-NC). This initiative follows an initial introduction of the bill in May 2022.

The Biden Administration has already enacted $620 billion in debt cancellation measures, with additional plans potentially raising this figure to $1.4 trillion. Critics argue that these policies surpass federal spending on higher education throughout U.S. history and contribute to inflation while penalizing individuals who either did not attend college or have already paid off their loans.

"Despite the Supreme Court’s ruling last summer that President Biden’s student loan forgiveness proposal was unconstitutional, the White House continues to cancel student loans and publicly entertain additional cancellation policies," said Senator Romney. "Not only are the Biden Administration’s student loan cancellation schemes morally questionable—forcing hardworking Americans who have already repaid their loans or decided to pursue alternative education paths to foot others’ bills—these policies are wildly inflationary, fiscally reckless, and do nothing to actually address the real problem of increasing higher education costs."

Senator Cassidy echoed this sentiment: "The Biden-Harris student loan schemes do not ‘forgive’ debt. They transfer the burden from those who willingly took out the loans onto Americans who chose not to go to college or already sacrificed to pay off their loans." He added that these actions are seen as attempts to gain political favor at taxpayers' expense.

Senator Scott also criticized the administration's approach: "President Biden’s student loan forgiveness scheme is misguided, deemed unconstitutional, and economically regressive—the list could go on. There is no reality where hardworking taxpayers should foot the bill for someone else’s degree and be slapped with loans they didn’t sign up for."

Senator Tillis highlighted concerns specific to his constituents: "President Biden’s illegal student loan cancellation plan is not only unfair for the millions of people who have worked hard and sacrificed to pay off their student loans. Additionally, hardworking North Carolinians, many of whom do not have student loans themselves, should not have to pay for someone else’s degree."

The senators advocate addressing what they see as root causes of rising higher education costs rather than implementing broad debt cancellation measures.