It’s clear that the Supreme Court’s decision to block President Joe Biden’s student debt bailout attempts has motivated his administration to find new ways to bypass Congress and the American people.
That’s because the Biden administration wants to fulfill a campaign promise to its left-wing political base ahead of the 2024 election cycle. This time, the administration appears to be weaponizing a class-action settlement to get its way.
Over the past several months, Republicans in Congress have investigated a different type of scheme to weaponize the Department of Education to “forgive” at least $6 billion in student loans through a legally dubious class-action settlement.
In the recent class-action lawsuit Sweet v. Cardona, students alleged that the Education Department was behind in reviewing loan forgiveness applications through an existing federal program designed to provide relief to a select number of wronged borrowers.
Yet, rather than continue to process applications on the merits of each claim as the students originally requested and the law requires, Biden’s Education Department saw an opportunity to use the court system to fulfill loan forgiveness and joined with the students to request a blanket settlement to discharge student loans for students who attended any of over 150 listed schools.
So far, this blanket settlement allows the Education Department to automatically provide a payout of at least $6 billion to cover student loans for over 200,000 borrowers, but the implications likely will be much broader.
In fact, as the courts continue to block Biden’s other student debt-shifting schemes, this settlement could become a tool for the Biden administration to circumvent regular statutory and legal channels and implement a broader student debt bailout—not only for these students, but also for other borrowers that the Biden administration encourages to submit claims under this settlement.
In Congress, House Oversight Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., and House Education Chairwoman Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., have led the charge in investigating this settlement and bringing the evidence of this scheme to light.
In May, Comer and Foxx sent a letter to Education Secretary Miguel Cardona requesting relevant documents and communications related to the settlement and any coordination involving the Education Department, the White House, and outside individuals and advocacy groups who are potentially influencing the department’s decision-making.
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