House votes to repeal Biden’s income-driven repayment regulation

The House of Representatives voted largely along party lines Thursday to repeal a Biden administration regulation that allows student loan borrowers to make smaller payments on their loans if their annual earnings fall below a certain threshold.

House Resolution 88, a Congressional Review Act resolution, passed the lower chamber on a near-party line, 210-189 vote. Two Democrats, Reps. Jared Golden (D-ME) and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D-WA), joined all Republicans to support the resolution. Twenty-two Democrats and 12 Republicans did not vote.

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If enacted into law, the resolution would repeal the administration’s SAVE plan, which allows borrowers to make payments totaling 5% of their discretionary income above the poverty line. The regulation also allows a loan to be forgiven after 10 years of continuous payments.

In a speech on the House floor prior to the vote, House Education and Workforce Committee Chairwoman Virginia Foxx (R-NC) ripped the regulation as illegal and said President Joe Biden is “ruling by executive decree and pinning the tab on the taxpayer.”

“America’s student loan system is broken, and this reckless, inflationary, and illegal expansion of executive authority will all but ensure it’s doomed beyond repair,” Foxx said. “This plan isn’t about helping borrowers, and it sure isn’t protecting taxpayers. It’s about an upcoming election and an administration dead set on using the executive pen to reshape our country. That’s the stone-cold truth of the matter.”

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The House vote was largely symbolic because the Senate voted down a companion bill last month, and Biden has vowed to veto the legislation if it ever makes it to his desk.

“This resolution would put our record economic recovery at risk by reducing the consumer spending of millions of borrowers returning to repayment after more than a three-year pause, and it would be particularly harmful to low- and middle-income borrowers, community college students, and borrowers who work in public service,” White House officials said in a statement earlier this week.