The Senate voted 52-46 on Thursday to pass the resolution, with two moderate Democratic Senators, Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Jon Tester of Montana, along with Independent Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, crossing the aisle to vote with their Republican colleagues.
The resolution passed the House days earlier, with two Democrats similarly joining the Republican majority: Reps. Jared Golden of Maine and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington. Now, it heads to the White House, where Biden has already said he will reject it. In that situation, Congress can still override his veto, but it’s unlikely that a two-thirds majority can be mustered to do so.
“This resolution is an unprecedented attempt to undercut our historic economic recovery and would deprive more than 40 million hard-working Americans of much-needed student debt relief,” the White House said in a statement last month.
Last August, Biden used his executive authority to implement a plan for canceling up to $10,000 in student loan debt for borrowers with incomes below a certain level, and up to $20,000 for those who received Pell Grants. However, the order was immediately challenged in the courts.
The debate has since been heard by the US Supreme Court, which is expected to issue its decision by the end of the month.
American students, almost uniquely in the world, must pay hefty tuition fees to obtain a higher education, often obtaining the loans to do so through financing plans facilitated by the US Department of Education or private banks. Those debts can become onerous, totaling tens of thousands of dollars, and continue to grow due to interest.
Republicans have argued that a debt forgiveness program is unfair to those who have already paid off their loans and that it would burden taxpayers; however, the Biden administration has countered that what’s unfair is the lifelong burden debt can create for lower-income Americans, and that forgiveness would decrease the federal deficit by about $315 billion in the next decade.