EXCLUSIVE — House Republicans have unveiled legislation to expose the student loans of White House staff as President Joe Biden fights to save his loan-forgiveness order in debt ceiling negotiations.
The House GOP voted 218 to 203 on Wednesday to overturn Biden’s sweeping plan that was announced last year, which would cancel up to $20,000 in federal student loan debt for those earning under $125,000 per year. Ahead of the expected Supreme Court ruling on the plan’s legality, Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ) is leading a GOP effort to purportedly uncover conflicts of interest by requiring certain executive branch employees to file expanded reports detailing their student debt balances, according to legislation obtained by the Washington Examiner.
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“American taxpayers deserve to know if President Biden’s staffers are pushing an egregious and unlawful national student debt bailout to ultimately bail themselves out,” Biggs told the Washington Examiner. “It’s unclear if the administration is advocating for this policy for personal benefit, but their motives will become clearer with my legislation.”
“If any wrongdoing is found, Congress will hold culprits accountable,” the congressman, who sits on the House Judiciary and Oversight and Accountability committees, added. “Biden’s student debt bailout is legally dubious, highly expensive, and morally unjust to millions of Americans who paid off their student loans on their own.”
Andrew Bates, a spokesman for the White House, said in a statement to the Washington Examiner, “That already happens,” referring to loan disclosure. “Good job.”
Biden has already vowed to veto the resolution passed in the House on Wednesday to repeal his student loan debt plan. Republicans want to overturn Biden’s executive action to forgive the student loans as part of their negotiations to raise the debt ceiling.
The ensuing fight over the plan is a glimpse into how several Democrats have disagreed with the president on fiscal policy, with Sens. Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Jon Tester (D-MT) among those who have expressed concerns over the debt plan.
The plan could cost the government roughly $400 billion over a 30-year period, according to the Congressional Budget Office. There is currently a pause on federal student loan payments. A Supreme Court ruling before June 30 would require borrowers with outstanding balances to begin repayment 60 days after the decision, while a ruling after that date would spawn repayment 60 days after June 30.
The Biggs-led “Federal Employee Student Debt Transparency Act” would put forth a system in which the Office of Government Ethics, an independent agency responsible for mitigating conflicts of interest among federal staffers, must transmit reports to Congress by May 1 on employee loan debt and any individuals who fail to file reports.
The bill would also require employees to disclose exact loan balances and not ranges of their debt.
Reps. Ralph Norman (R-SC), Josh Brecheen (R-OK), Paul Gosar (R-AZ), Ronny Jackson (R-TX), Pete Sessions (R-TX), Mary E. Miller (R-IL), and Randy Weber (R-TX) are cosponsors, according to Matthew Tragesser, a spokesman for Biggs.
Republicans have previously raised concerns after multiple reports surfaced on how 30 White House staffers in 2021 owed up to $4.7 million in debt. Included in this bunch was Biden’s press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, who disclosed over $10,000 in debt. However, her salary was reported as $180,000 last year, making it unlikely that she would qualify for relief.
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“This policy is an unjust wealth transfer from hard working Americans to highly educated upper-middle-class graduates who borrowed from taxpayers to earn their degree, and, in some cases, multiple degrees,” Reps. James Comer (R-KY) and Virginia Foxx (R-NC) wrote in a letter to the Office of Government Ethics last June following the staffer debt revelations.
The lawmakers claimed that the staffers “stand to financially benefit” from Biden’s plan.
