(VitalNews.org) – On June 21st, the House failed to override President Joe Biden’s veto of legislation repealing his student debt forgiveness plan.
In early June, the House and Senate passed a resolution along party lines that would have overturned Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan. Biden’s plan would cancel some student loan borrowers’ debt. Those who individually make less than $125,000 as well as married couples or heads of households making $250,000 or less in 2021 or 2020 could see up to $10,000 in loan forgiveness. If a borrower has a federal Pell Grant, the amount would be increased to up to $20,000.
The resolution would have ended the pause on student loan payments which has been in place since March 2020. However, as part of the ceiling negotiations, the payment pause will be ending, with interest to resume on September 1st and payments scheduled to resume in October.
After the resolution passed in early June, Biden issued his veto. He said the move will help working-class and middle-class families.
Critics of the plan say that taxpayers, especially those who do not have college loans, should not be responsible for the $400 billion bill.
The June 21 vote in the House, at 221-206, fell short of the two-thirds majority vote needed to overturn Biden’s veto. The vote means the resolution, which was introduced in March using the Congressional Review Act, has failed to overturn his student loan forgiveness program. The Government Accountability Office allowed for the use of the Congressional Review Act, which allows for the rollback of regulations from the executive branch by Congress without the threshold of 60 votes required by most legislation in the Senate.
However, Biden’s student loan forgiveness program is still waiting on a ruling from the Supreme Court. Attorney generals in Republican-led states, as well as a conservative group, sued to stop the student loan forgiveness program, saying it is an illegal overreach of executive power.
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