Grand Canyon Times

Arizona Attorney General, Mark Brnovich, recently filed a lawsuit with the U.S. District Court of Arizona to stop the student loan forgiveness program, one of six Republican-led states to sue the Biden administration over the sweeping loan-forgiveness plan President Joe Biden announced Sept. 18.

“The lawsuit challenges the president’s authority, through the Department of Education, to unilaterally cancel more than $500 billion in student loan debt without congressional approval,” Brnovich wrote in the suit.

The Biden administration has also scaled back eligibility rules for the debt relief, cutting out borrowers whose loans are backed by the federal government but owned by private banks, according to an ABC 15 report. Officials who filed the suits claim Biden has overstepped his powers and handed taxpayers needless burdens.

“It’s patently unfair to saddle hard-working Americans with the loan debt of those who chose to go to college,” Arkansas Attorney General, Leslie Rutledge, said.

The Republican states argue that Biden's cancellation plan is “not remotely tailored to address the effects of the pandemic on federal student loan borrowers,” as stated in the 2003 federal law that the administration used as legal justification for the measure. Republicans said Biden told "60 Minutes” that the COVID-19 pandemic was over, yet he still uses the ongoing health emergency to justify the debt relief.

“The Department of Education is required, under the law, to collect the balance due on loans. And President Biden does not have the authority to override that.”  Rutledge said.

The education department issued a statement on the matter Sept. 29.

“Our goal is to provide relief to as many eligible borrowers as quickly and easily as possible, and this will allow us to achieve that goal while we continue to explore additional legally-available options to provide relief to borrowers with privately owned FFEL loans and Perkins loans,” the statement read.