NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach received news Monday in an ongoing case where several states are challenging the Biden Administration's authority to forgive student loans.
"That seems to be a pretty naked political ploy to win the votes of people who may have student loan debt by getting out there, right after the Supreme Court last year said they couldn't do it, then they said, well, we'll just do it again and we'll do it in a slightly different way," Kobach said. "Even though the Supreme Court very clearly said this was beyond the executive branch's authority to just unilaterally forgive these debts."
Kobach's office has argued that the administration is reading authority into a statute that just isn't there.
"The decision was based on a number of factors and the Biden administration is trying to say, well, we claimed our authority under the HEROES Act, which was a post 9-11 act, and now we're claiming authority under the Higher Education Act," Kobach said. "They're saying it's different this time, but in fact, most of the same arguments apply and their claim that the statute itself gives them authorization to do this, it's a pretty weak claim."
The statute says that the Department of Education can change the terms of loan repayment.
"Maybe they extend the number of years or change the interest rate, but it still calls for the word repayment," Kobach said. "The Biden administration is saying, well, we can change the terms so that in effect there's no repayment, and that's part of the argument we've been having in the court."
An injunction preventing the program from being implemented was ordered on Monday by Judge Daniel Crabtree.
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