Federal Judges Block Key Sections of Biden Admin’s SAVE Program

(LibertySons.org) – In August 2023, the Biden-Harris Administration announced the launching of the Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) program aimed at lowering the monthly payments for student loan borrowers. The program calculates a monthly payment based on the borrower’s income and family size to make repayment easier and forgives the remaining balance after a set number of years. Recently, a federal judge blocked part of the effort.

On June 24, US District Judge Michael Crabtree for the District of Kansas issued a ruling stating he believed Republican states would probably succeed in their legal claims that the federal government needed congressional approval to enact parts of the SAVE program. While the judge didn’t block the program entirely and didn’t “unwind the parts of the SAVE Plan already in effect,” Crabtree blocked the parts of the initiative “not yet implemented.”

The same day, US District Judge Judge John Ross of the Eastern District of Missouri issued a ruling about the SAVE program as well. He blocked the federal government from forgiving any more loans under the measure until the court ruled on the entirety of the case. However, Ross indicated that the education secretary may have exceeded his authority regarding the SAVE program. That case was the State of Missouri v. Biden

President Joe Biden announced in May that his administration’s debt relief efforts had benefitted a total of 4.75 million Americans throughout his tenure so far. Since taking office, the president “promised to fight to ensure higher education is a ticket to the middle class, not a barrier to opportunity.” He vowed to “never stop working to cancel student debt.”

Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach celebrated Crabtree’s ruling as a win. He said forgiving student debt without the approval of Congress is “unconstitutional” and “unfair.” Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey also spoke about the rulings, stating that Biden doesn’t have the authority to make such a decision; Congress does.

~Here’s to Our Liberty!