Power of the pen: Biden issues two more veto threats

President Joe Biden has issued two veto threats to protect several controversial agenda items as Republicans in Congress seek to roll back or hamper his administrative goals.

If he follows through with the vetoes, that will bring Biden’s total vetoes to 10 since he took office in 2020, with all of them occurring this year. The president has vetoed high-profile legislation this year, such as a repeal of a Washington, D.C., crime law and an effort to overturn protections for the nation’s waterways.

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The veto threats floated on Monday involve two areas that are central to both the Biden administration’s agenda and his campaign promises as he touts his successes during his reelection bid: student loans and green energy.

Biden issued one threat on Monday against Republican-led efforts to overturn the income-driven student loan repayment regulation, or Biden’s Saving on a Valuable Education plan. Under the plan, borrowers who qualify for the program make smaller monthly payments and are eligible for loan forgiveness more quickly. The website was launched in late August, nearly a month before student loan repayment plans were set to resume after a three-year pause beginning in March 2020.

However, House Joint Resolution 88 seeks to invoke the Congressional Review Act to repeal the SAVE plan, with a vote expected as early as Tuesday. A companion bill in the Senate failed last month, meaning that the House’s attempts to overturn the student loan plan may not reach Biden’s desk at all.

Student loan forgiveness is a pillar of the Biden administration’s agenda, and it has taken many steps to cancel student loans. The White House said a repeal of the plan would “put our record economic recovery at risk” and be “particularly harmful” for low- and middle-income student loan borrowers. To date, the administration has discharged more than $120 billion in student loans through existing programs such as the income-driven repayment program.

The other veto prospect involves efforts from Congress to hamper the administration’s move to stricter environmental regulations. The White House has made green energy a focal point of its agenda, as well, hoping to achieve a carbon-pollution-free electricity sector by 2035 and have all new vehicle sales be electric by 2030.

The Choice in Automobile Retail Sales, or CARS, Act, would block Environmental Protection Agency tailpipe emissions efforts to require about 70% of new car and truck sales to have no tailpipe emissions in under 10 years. Republicans and other critics say the new standards are damaging to the U.S. auto industry. A House vote on the bill is expected to come this week.

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Biden said he would veto the CARS Act if it came to his desk, arguing that the proposed standards would ensure economic prosperity in the short and long term. The administration has argued the stricter emissions regulations would give consumers a greater variety of choices.

The president has vetoed other congressional resolutions related to EPA standards and student loans, including one resolution that would have repealed a heavy-duty vehicle pollution rule and one joint resolution that sought to nullify the Department of Education’s suspension and discharge of student loan debt.