House Republicans look to line up student debt relief votes amid White House opposition

House leaders are preparing to vote this week on legislation that would block President Joe Biden’s student debt relief program and nullify the pause on federal student loan payments and interest.

The White House on Monday confirmed that Biden would defend his program, issuing a veto threat against the GOP measure, which is scheduled for a floor vote on Wednesday.

“This resolution is an unprecedented attempt to undercut our historic economic recovery and would deprive more than 40 million hard-working Americans of much-needed student debt relief,” the Office of Management and Budget said in a statement. “If Congress were to pass H.J. Res. 45, the President would veto it.”

Nearly every House Republican already voted last month to block Biden’s student debt relief as part of a sweeping package of policy proposals in the GOP bill to raise the debt ceiling.

But this would be the first time an attempt to undermine Biden’s loan forgiveness program, which offers up to $20,000 of debt relief for millions of borrowers, would get a vote in the House as a stand-alone measure. It’ll gauge the strength of Democratic support for the policy in Congress, especially among some moderates who have been cool to the idea of canceling student debt even as it’s been championed by the party’s progressive wing.

The vote on Wednesday is the latest effort in an multi-pronged attack that Republicans have waged against Biden's loan forgiveness plan, which they say is too costly for taxpayers, unfair to Americans who didn't attend college, and an illegal abuse of executive authority.

The Supreme Court is weighing a decision in two legal challenges to the plan brought by GOP attorneys general and a conservative group. The justices are expected to decide the case next month.

House Republicans are planning to question two top Education Department officials about the cost of Biden's student loan policies during a hearing, which is also scheduled for Wednesday. James Kvaal, the undersecretary of education, and Rich Cordray, the head of Federal Student Aid, are slated to testify before the House higher education subcommittee.

GOP lawmakers are using the Congressional Review Act to repeal Biden’s debt relief policies. The tool allows Congress to swiftly block recent executive branch policies using fast-track procedures.

House Republicans approved the measure in committee earlier this month on a party-line vote.

After the House votes on it this week, Republicans will be able to force a vote on the resolution in the Senate. But it’s not yet clear whether they have the votes to pass it in that chamber, and the timing of a vote is also up in the air. The Senate is not in session this week, though it could return to vote on a debt ceiling deal.

Every Senate Republican except Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) has signed on to the bill while some moderate Democrats have been noncommittal over whether they would vote to defend Biden’s student debt relief plan even though they’ve criticized the policy in the past.

The Congressional Budget Office last week estimated that the repeal of Biden’s debt relief plan would reduce the deficit by about $320 billion over the next decade, as a result of “future repayments of principal and interest on student loans."

The White House on Monday reiterated the Biden administration's view that the student debt relief program should not be subject to the Congressional Review Act because it was an exercise of an emergency authority under the HEROES Act, a 2003 law that gives the Education Department the power to waive or modify student loan policies as a response to national emergencies.

The Government Accountability Office, which is responsible for issuing decisions about when agency policies constitute a rule, rejected that argument earlier this year, opening up the Congressional Review Act path for Republican lawmakers to block the policy.