Joe Biden’s Desperate Attempt To Use Taxpayer Money To Buy Votes Continues

Research | The Leader Board | THE NEWSROOM | Republican LeaderSkip to primary navigation Skip to content×Close THE NEWSROOMRemarks Press Releases The Leader Board Op-Eds Videos SENATE RESOURCESRepublican Senators Committees Congressional Record Congress.gov Senate Floor Webcast ABOUT LEADER McCONNELL×Close THE NEWSROOMRemarks Press Releases The Leader Board Op-Eds Videos SENATE RESOURCESRepublican Senators Committees Congressional Record Congress.gov Senate Floor Webcast ABOUT LEADER McCONNELLxxsearchxMENUFacebookTwitterInstagramFacebookTwitterInstagramVisit Senator McConnell's site here THE NEWSROOMRemarks Press Releases The Leader Board Op-Eds Videos SENATE RESOURCESRepublican Senators Committees Congressional Record Congress.gov Senate Floor Webcast ABOUT LEADER McCONNELLxxsearchxMENUHomeTHE NEWSROOMThe Leader Board02.28.24Joe Biden’s Desperate Attempt To Use Taxpayer Money To Buy Votes ContinuesDesperate To Buy Votes In An Election Year, President Biden Continues To Unapologetically Transfer Taxpayer Money To Young Voters Who, Polls Show, Have Turned Their Back On His Failed PoliciesSENATE REPUBLICAN LEADER MITCH McCONNELL (R-KY): “Beginning with a failure to launch last fall, the Department of Education was slow to post the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) online. Now, months behind schedule, prospective students and parents are stuck with incomplete information on the cost of attending college. But while the department is slowing down and muddling the financial aid process, they are simultaneously speeding up their student loan socialism scheme roll out. It’s almost as though the Biden Administration wants more young people to incur excessive debt so that they can turn around and force taxpayers to foot an even larger bill to bail them out! Not only has the Supreme Court ruled President Biden’s student loan socialism unconstitutional – the scheme is also profoundly bad policy. And it won’t help American families struggling to afford college. Heaping billions of dollars of student loan debt onto taxpayers will only drive up tuition prices at universities that are failing miserably at their most basic responsibilities.” (Sen. McConnell, Remarks, 2/28/2024)SEN. BILL CASSIDY (R-LA), Senate HELP Committee Ranking Member: “Just like Biden’s original student debt cancelation scheme, this IDR rule does not ‘forgive’ debt. It transfers the burden of $559 billion in federal student loans to the 87 percent of Americans who don’t have student loans, who chose not to go to college, or already responsibly paid off their debts.  Under this rule, a majority of bachelor’s degree student loan borrowers will not be expected to pay back even the principal on their loans. Additionally, 91 percent of new student debt would be eligible for reduced payments, subsidized by the taxpayers.” (Sen. Cassidy, Remarks, 11/15/2023)SEN. CASSIDY: “Aside from being unfair, Biden’s student loan cancelation scheme does not address the root causes that created the debt in the first place. For example, he does not hold colleges or universities accountable for rising costs. In the last 30 years, tuition and fees have jumped at private non-profit colleges by 80 percent. At public four-year institutions, they’ve jumped by 124 percent. … President Biden’s student loan scheme is not a fix. It is a politically motivated giveaway that forces taxpayers to shoulder the responsibility of paying off someone else’s debt. We need real leadership to address this issue.” (Sen. Cassidy, Remarks, 11/15/2023)Once Again, Biden Is Using Money You Paid In Taxes To Forgive Other Peoples’ Debts“The Biden administration has canceled another $1.2 billion in student debt for more than 150,000 borrowers…. ‘If you qualify, you’ll be hearing from me shortly,’ President Joe Biden said Wednesday, speaking at a public library in Culver City, California, where he stopped during a three-day campaign fundraising swing on the West Coast.” (“Biden Cancels $1.2B In Student Loan Debt For Borrowers On Income-Driven Repayment Plan,” USA Today, 2/21/2024)Biden Really Wants People To Know He’s The One Handing Out The Cash: ‘He’s Sending Emails To Make Sure They Know Whom To Thank For It’“President Biden on Wednesday began emailing more than 150,000 student loan borrowers enrolled in his signature repayment plan that their debts — $1.2 billion in total — have been canceled, the latest effort by the administration to tout its success in providing debt relief as the campaign season heats up.” (“Biden Administration Cancels $1.2B In Student Loans With New Repayment Plan,” The Washington Post, 2/21/2024)“The email is expected to include a congratulatory message from President Joe Biden, whose administration is eager to remind voters what it has done to address student loan debt as the presidential election ramps up.” (CNN, 2/21/2024)“President Joe Biden on Wednesday will announce $1.2 billion of student debt relief for nearly 153,000 borrowers — and he’s sending emails to make sure they know whom to thank for it.” (“Biden Will Email 153,000 Student Loan Borrowers: I’m Canceling Your Debt,” Politico, 2/21/2024)“The Education Department has previously sent out emails signed by Biden for some, but not all, previous rounds of debt relief. Many borrowers have posted screenshots of those emails in recent months across social media platforms.”  (“Biden Will Email 153,000 Student Loan Borrowers: I’m Canceling Your Debt,” Politico, 2/21/2024)“More of those letters will be going out before the election. At a fundraising event in Columbia on Saturday, Biden said that 25,000 people a month would be getting letters from him saying they'd be getting relief from student loans.” (“Rep. Jim Clyburn Helped Biden Win Young Black Voters In 2020. This Time, They're Not Listening.” NBC News, 1/30/2024)‘A Significant Expansion Of [The White House’s] Plans To Cancel Student Debt As President Joe Biden Looks To Run On The Issue’“The White House on Thursday unveiled a significant expansion of its plans to cancel student debt as President Joe Biden looks to run on the issue during this year’s election.” (“White House Expands Plans To Cancel Student Debt,” Politico, 2/15/2024)“The latest draft is the most wide-ranging part of Biden’s Plan B strategy for canceling large swaths of student debt in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision last summer to strike down his first attempt to cancel as much as $400 billion of outstanding debt.” (“White House Expands Plans To Cancel Student Debt,” Politico, 2/15/2024)The Biden Administration Is Crowing That It Has Now Transferred $138 Billion In Taxpayer Money To People Who Owed Student Loans“The administration says that it has now approved loan discharges totaling nearly $138 billion for nearly 3.9 million borrowers through dozens of administrative actions since coming into office.” (“Biden Will Email 153,000 Student Loan Borrowers: I’m Canceling Your Debt,” Politico, 2/21/2024)‘His Debt Forgiveness Scheme Is As Flagrant A Vote-Buying Ploy As We Can Remember’THE WALL STREET JOURNAL EDITORIAL BOARD: “Mr. Biden is boasting about his debt forgiveness because he is desperate to get young voters to support him again in November. His 2020 coalition is splintering, and younger voters aren’t thrilled with his leadership or the results of his economic policies. His debt forgiveness scheme is as flagrant a vote-buying ploy as we can remember.” (Editorial, “Biden’s Student Loan Boast: The Supreme Court ‘Didn’t Stop Me,’” The Wall Street Journal, 2/23/2024)NATIONAL REVIEW EDITORS: “Never, in the history of buying votes, have so many been so fleeced for so few.” (Editorial, “Biden’s Desperate Student-Loan-Relief Giveaway,” National Review, 2/22/2024)As The Presidential Election Year Begins, Biden Is Desperate To Shore Up His Flagging Approval Ratings Among Progressives And Younger VotersBiden ‘Needs To Maintain His Level Of Backing From Progressives’ … ‘Several Progressive Advocates And Lawmakers Say They Feel The President Is Now Taking Them For Granted’“The Biden team is counting on the president’s ability to reassemble the 2020 coalition, meaning he needs to maintain his level of backing from progressives.” (“Biden’s Support From Progressives At Risk Over Border Bill And Israel,” The Wall Street Journal, 2/06/2024)“Several progressive advocates and lawmakers say they feel the president is now taking them for granted.” (“Biden’s Support From Progressives At Risk Over Border Bill And Israel,” The Wall Street Journal, 2/06/2024)“Biden … handed progressives a win when he said in August 2022 he would cancel up to $20,000 for borrowers below a certain income threshold. Although the Supreme Court overturned his plan, the administration has used other tools to cancel student debt.” (“Biden’s Support From Progressives At Risk Over Border Bill And Israel,” The Wall Street Journal, 2/06/2024)“‘We’re not happy with Biden,’ [Norman] Clement [the founder of the nonprofit Detroit Change Initiative] said, recalling a frequent refrain he hears from voters.” (“Biden Campaign Faces Its Greatest Test: Rebuilding His 2020 Coalition,” CNN, 2/2/2024)“He said he often hears complaints about promises that Biden hasn’t been able to achieve, including voting rights reform, policing reform and more, but the reasons why aren’t as well known, such as the narrow majorities in Congress or, in the case of student debt forgiveness, the Supreme Court blocking the Biden administration’s plan.” (“Biden Campaign Faces Its Greatest Test: Rebuilding His 2020 Coalition,” CNN, 2/2/2024)As President, Biden Has ‘Adopted Aspects Of [Sen. Bernie] Sanders’ Policy Proposals’ “After Biden navigated a crowded Democratic primary in 2020 and defeated more liberal candidates, he and his aides contacted and sought the support of his progressive primary opponents, along with liberal lawmakers and groups. Biden, a longtime centrist, adopted aspects of Sanders’s policy proposals and formed task forces with experts representing both moderate and progressive wings of the Democratic Party.” (“Biden’s Support From Progressives At Risk Over Border Bill And Israel,” The Wall Street Journal, 2/6/2024)“The latest draft comes after the Biden administration faced months of pressure from Congressional Democrats and student debt activists who were disappointed that a previous round of public hearings did not include a broad category for borrowers experiencing hardship.” (“White House Expands Plans To Cancel Student Debt,” Politico, 2/15/2024)But So Far, Biden’s Student Loan Gambit Has ‘Fallen Flat With … Young Voters’“President Joe Biden’s unprecedented actions to erase student-loan debt have fallen flat with the young voters in swing states he needs to win reelection, according to the latest Bloomberg News/Morning Consult poll.” (“Biden Forgave Billions in Student Debt. Poll Shows It’s Not Enough For Gen Z,” Bloomberg, 12/14/2023)“A plurality of swing-state Generation Z voters — those born in 1997 or later — say Biden is not doing enough to address the burden of student loan payments, even after he has erased $127 billion in such debt in initiatives that are widely thought to be aimed at locking in that key demographic.” (“Biden Forgave Billions in Student Debt. Poll Shows It’s Not Enough For Gen Z,” Bloomberg, 12/14/2023)“The disconnect illustrates one of the core challenges of Biden’s campaign for a second term: He struggles to get credit from voters for policies intended to motivate them.” (“Biden Forgave Billions in Student Debt. Poll Shows It’s Not Enough For Gen Z,” Bloomberg, 12/14/2023)‘Biden Has Privately Expressed Frustration That His Administration Has Not Received Enough Credit From Voters’“But a challenge for the Biden reelection campaign and Democratic allies is making sure that the president gets credit for canceling that debt…” (“Biden Will Email 153,000 Student Loan Borrowers: I’m Canceling Your Debt,” Politico, 2/21/2024)“Ahead of his own reelection bid, Biden has privately expressed frustration that his administration has not received enough credit from voters for its actions to help consumers and bolster the economy.” (“Biden Administration Cancels $1.2B In Student Loans With New Repayment Plan,” The Washington Post, 2/21/2024)“If only young voters knew more about what Biden has done to erase billions in student loan debt, for example, they'd feel differently, the president's allies contend.” (“Rep. Jim Clyburn Helped Biden Win Young Black Voters In 2020. This Time, They're Not Listening.” NBC News, 1/30/2024)“Some of Biden’s allies, including Rep. James E. Clyburn (D-S.C.), have warned that the president could face electoral problems if he does not convince voters that he has kept his promises on a wide range of issues. Clyburn has specifically raised the president’s student loan relief pledge as one area where a significant gap exists between what Biden has accomplished and what voters believe he has done.” (“Biden Administration Cancels $1.2B In Student Loans With New Repayment Plan,” The Washington Post, 2/21/2024)PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: “This action is on top of everything else my Administration has achieved for students and borrowers.” (President Biden, Email Draft, 2/21/2024)BIDEN: “I'm proud that we have been able to give borrowers like you the relief you earned.” (President Biden, Email Draft, 2/21/2024)Perhaps It’s Because Transferring Money To Those Who Took Out Student Loans Actually ‘Skews To Upper Income-Borrowers’ And Middle-Aged BorrowersTHE WALL STREET JOURNAL EDITORIAL BOARD: “But the costs are high … The forgiveness skews to upper-income borrowers who have attended college at the expense of those who don’t. It is grossly unfair.” (Editorial, “Biden’s Student Loan Boast: The Supreme Court ‘Didn’t Stop Me,’” The Wall Street Journal, 2/23/2024)“It also punishes parents and students who have saved to pay for college without loans, or who sacrificed consumption after college to repay them. Mr. Biden’s scheme does nothing to reform student lending, so it increases the incentive for students to borrow more and colleges to raise tuition knowing all or nearly all will be forgiven eventually.” (Editorial, “Biden’s Student Loan Boast: The Supreme Court ‘Didn’t Stop Me,’” The Wall Street Journal, 2/23/2024)“He’s not really cancelling anything because he’s transferring the debt from the borrowers it benefited to the taxpayers who will finance it with higher taxes or interest payments on the rising national debt.” (Editorial, “Biden’s Student Loan Boast: The Supreme Court ‘Didn’t Stop Me,’” The Wall Street Journal, 2/23/2024)“The White House has cancelled almost $132 billion in student debt for 3.6 million borrowers, according to the Education Department, mostly through revisions to existing programs. Those steps have mostly helped middle-aged borrowers, since most federal programs require payment for at least a decade before eligibility for cancellation.” (“Biden’s New Student Debt Plan Faces Pressure From Civil Rights, Labor Groups,” Bloomberg, 1/18/2024)“That’s left younger voters skeptical that Biden is following through. A December Bloomberg News/Morning Consult poll found 43%, a plurality, of Gen Z voters — those born in 1997 or later — say Biden is not doing enough to address loan-payment burdens. A majority of that group, 57%, though approve of the relief the administration has already provided.” (“Biden’s New Student Debt Plan Faces Pressure From Civil Rights, Labor Groups,” Bloomberg, 1/18/2024)Of Course All This Is Still Not Enough For Progressive ActivistsProgressives Want The White House ‘To Broaden The Scope Of An Alternative Debt-Relief Plan … Changes The Groups Say Are Necessary To Help Blocs Crucial To His Reelection Campaign’“President Joe Biden is facing pressure from nearly 70 advocacy groups to broaden the scope of an alternative debt-relief plan the administration is set to release, changes the groups say are necessary to help blocs crucial to his reelection campaign including young people and people of color.” (“Biden’s New Student Debt Plan Faces Pressure From Civil Rights, Labor Groups,” Bloomberg, 1/18/2024)“Major organizations, including the NAACP, AFL-CIO and the American Federation of Teachers, signed a letter obtained by Bloomberg News urging the Education Department to hold another meeting in its rule-making process, which ended last month, that would allow stakeholders to address their concerns about the department’s draft proposal.” (“Biden’s New Student Debt Plan Faces Pressure From Civil Rights, Labor Groups,” Bloomberg, 1/18/2024)“It’s the latest effort by civil-rights groups, labor unions and progressives to increase pressure on the White House to expand a replacement offering relief to student-loan borrowers after the US Supreme Court struck down Biden’s initial plan to forgive billions of dollars in debt.” (“Biden’s New Student Debt Plan Faces Pressure From Civil Rights, Labor Groups,” Bloomberg, 1/18/2024)“The push has high stakes for the president’s reelection campaign, with polls showing his support weakening with Black, Hispanic and young voters. The coalition expresses frustration that the department did not include targeted relief for borrowers who have experienced hardship in its draft proposal. The term ‘hardship’ specifically is drawn from the Higher Education Act, a law that gives the Education secretary broad authorities to waive federal student loans.” (“Biden’s New Student Debt Plan Faces Pressure From Civil Rights, Labor Groups,” Bloomberg, 1/18/2024)“The National Action Network, led by Al Sharpton, as well as UnidosUS, the National Urban League, the Center for American Progress, National Consumer Law Center and Public Citizen are among the organizations that signed the letter. The Student Borrower Protection Center and Young Invincibles, a youth advocacy group, organized the memo.” (“Biden’s New Student Debt Plan Faces Pressure From Civil Rights, Labor Groups,” Bloomberg, 1/18/2024)Biden Keeps Bragging That He’s Giving Away All Of This Money In Defiance Of The Supreme Court“The Supreme Court struck down [Biden’s] plan for widespread forgiveness, but the repayment plan has so far escaped that level of legal scrutiny.” (“Federal Student Loans For Nearly 153,000 Borrowers Are Being Automatically Canceled, Biden Says,” The Associated Press, 2/21/2024)“[Biden’s Education Department] is also crafting another plan to offer relief to more borrowers after a loan forgiveness plan that Biden introduced in 2022 was struck down by the Supreme Court last year." (“Biden Administration Cancels $1.2B In Student Loans With New Repayment Plan,” The Washington Post, 2/21/2024)Biden: ‘The Supreme Court Blocked It. They Blocked It. But That Didn’t Stop Me’PRESIDENT BIDEN: “Look, early in my term, I announced a major plan to provide millions of working families with debt relief for their college student debt.” (Pres. Biden, Remarks, 2/21/2024)BIDEN: “And the Supreme Court blocked it. They blocked it. But that didn’t stop me.”  (Pres. Biden, Remarks, 2/21/2024)BIDEN: “We’ve got a lot more to do, but with the help of all of you college graduates who — who have paid off your student loans now, I’m confident we’re going to get it all done.” (Pres. Biden, Remarks, 2/21/2024)“‘I went to the Supreme Court to eliminate student debt out there,’ Biden said to applause at a Bidenomics-focused speech in Milwaukee. ‘Guess what? The Supreme Court ruled against me, but I still got 136 million people’s debt relieved.’” (“Biden Brags About Defying Supreme Court And Relieving ‘136 Million’ Student Loan Debts,” Washington Examiner, 12/20/2023)‘Worst Of All Is Mr. Biden’s Blatant Rejection Of The Law, Even After The Supreme Court Called Him Out,’ ‘He Responded To This Rebuke With Rank Defiance’THE WALL STREET JOURNAL EDITORIAL BOARD: “American Presidents may not like Supreme Court decisions, but most since Andrew Jackson haven’t bragged about defying its rulings. Not even Donald Trump. Then there’s President Biden, who, while canceling more student debt this week, boasted about ignoring the Supreme Court’s landmark 2023 ruling that his previous loan forgiveness plan was illegal.” (Editorial, “Biden’s Student Loan Boast: The Supreme Court ‘Didn’t Stop Me,’” The Wall Street Journal, 2/23/2024)“Speaking in Culver City, Calif., on Wednesday, Mr. Biden said his original plan to ‘provide millions of working families with debt relief for their college student debt’ was derailed by ‘MAGA Republicans’ and ‘special interests’ who challenged the plan in court. ‘The Supreme Court blocked it,’ Mr. Biden added, ‘but that didn’t stop me.’ He apparently thinks defying the law is a virtue.” (Editorial, “Biden’s Student Loan Boast: The Supreme Court ‘Didn’t Stop Me,’” The Wall Street Journal, 2/23/2024)“But worst of all is Mr. Biden’s blatant rejection of the law, even after the Supreme Court called him out. Is it any wonder that GOP voters don’t take Democratic alarms about losing democracy seriously? Mr. Biden doesn’t take his own warnings seriously.” (Editorial, “Biden’s Student Loan Boast: The Supreme Court ‘Didn’t Stop Me,’” The Wall Street Journal, 2/23/2024)NATIONAL REVIEW EDITORS: “Last year, the Supreme Court held that Biden’s effort to ‘cancel’ up to $20,000 for every borrower in the United States was illegal — a fact that Biden knew all too well. Astonishingly, he responded to this rebuke with rank defiance, vowing that he would ‘stop at nothing to find other ways’ to achieve the same aim. And so he has…. At best, Biden has found a way to achieve piecemeal what he was prohibited from achieving in one fell swoop. At worst, Biden is thumbing his nose at his oath to uphold the Constitution. Either way, it is a disgrace — and all the more so coming from a president who promised to restore American norms.” (Editorial, “Biden’s Desperate Student-Loan-Relief Giveaway,” National Review, 2/22/2024)FLASHBACK: Biden Used To Agree That ‘The Law Is King,’ Even When The Supreme Court Resolves Issues ‘In Directions That I Didn’t Like’JOE BIDEN: “More than two centuries ago, Justice John Marshall famously declared that the Court ‘has the duty to say what the law is.’ Not an option — a duty. A solemn duty…. At times like these, we need more than ever a fully functioning Court, a Court that can resolve diverse issues peacefully, even when they resolve them in directions that I didn’t like.” (Vice President Joe Biden’s Supreme Court Remarks at Georgetown University Law Center, 3/24/2016)“Biden spoke at a University of Nevada, Las Vegas, law school fundraiser, where he also rallied for the rule of law…. ‘In other countries, the king is law,’ Biden said, quoting Thomas Paine. ‘In America, the law is king.’ … ‘The independence of our court system is the glue that holds everything together,’ he said.” (“Biden Extolls Rule Of Law During Speech In Las Vegas,” The Associated Press, 12/02/2018)Senate Republicans Forced A Vote On Biden’s Unfair ‘Politically Motivated Giveaway’ In Defiance Of The Supreme Court, And Nearly Every Senate Democrat Voted To Allow ItSEN. BILL CASSIDY (R-LA), Senate HELP Committee Ranking Member: “The Senate will soon vote on the Congressional Review Act, Resolution of Disapproval to overturn President Biden’s newest student loan scheme…. President Biden’s student loan scheme is not a fix. It is a politically motivated giveaway that forces taxpayers to shoulder the responsibility of paying off someone else’s debt…. I will close by encouraging all my colleagues to join me in voting to pass this Congressional Review Act resolution to prevent this unfair student debt cancelation scheme. It is unfair to the hundreds of millions of Americans who will bear the burden of paying off hundreds of billions of dollars of someone else's student debt.” (Sen. Cassidy, Remarks, 11/15/2023)Nearly every Senate Democrat voted against Sen. Cassidy’s Congressional Review Act resolution to overturn President Biden’s student loan scheme. (S.J. Res. 43, Roll Call Vote #310, Rejected 49-50: D 1-48; R 48-0; I 0-2, 11/15/2023)“Republicans have slammed Biden’s SAVE program as unfair and fiscally irresponsible, blasting the hundreds of billions of dollars the program is expected to cost. House Republicans passed legislation last year to nullify the program, though the effort fell short in the Senate.” (“Biden Will Email 153,000 Student Loan Borrowers: I’m Canceling Your Debt,” Politico, 2/21/2024)“Republicans highlighted that the plan will cost taxpayers $559 billion, saying individuals who never went to school or already paid off their student loans would wind up paying for others.” (The Hill, 11/15/2023)And Far-Left Senate Democrats Still Want More“Top Democrats, including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, are raising new alarms that the Biden administration is moving toward a second student debt cancellation program that leaves out too many borrowers and offers insufficient relief.” (“Progressives Worry Biden’s New Student Loan Relief Proposal Is Too Small,” Politico, 12/11/2023)“The Education Department in recent weeks unveiled draft plans for a narrower, more targeted loan relief plan to replace President Joe Biden’s initial, sweeping program that the Supreme Court struck down as illegal in June. But some of the progressive lawmakers who successfully convinced Biden to cancel student debt in the first place are concerned the latest proposals don’t go far enough. They’re pressing the administration to exercise its legal authority to the ‘fullest extent’ to maximize debt relief.” (“Progressives Worry Biden’s New Student Loan Relief Proposal Is Too Small,” Politico, 12/11/2023)“Schumer, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and other lawmakers wrote to Secretary Miguel Cardona that his agency’s latest draft plan ‘would fall far short of providing the full scale of debt relief that low- and middle-income Americans urgently need.’” (“Progressives Worry Biden’s New Student Loan Relief Proposal Is Too Small,” Politico, 12/11/2023)The Biden Administration Is Obsessed With Forgiving The Debts Of Those Who Already Received A College Education While They Fail Students Currently Trying To Go To College In ‘A Basic Operation Of Government’SEN. CASSIDY: “The Biden Department of Education has been unable to fulfill their basic responsibilities mandated by Congress and essential to families like implementing FAFSA. Instead, they have spent a considerable amount of time prioritizing their student loan schemes to shift someone else’s debt onto taxpayers that chose not to go to college or already paid off their loans … This is unfair, manipulative and a cynical attempt to buy votes.” (Sen. Cassidy, Press Release, 2/21/2024)‘A Government Technology Blunder Reminiscent Of The Botched Rollout Of HealthCare.gov’“President Joe Biden’s attempt at making it easier for tens of millions of families to access federal aid for college has turned into a government technology blunder reminiscent of the botched rollout of HealthCare.gov.” (“College Admissions Face New Turmoil After Biden’s Education Department Fumble,” Politico, 2/20/2024)“The Biden administration has spent three years working to implement a bipartisan law Congress passed in December 2020 that overhauled the federal financial aid formula and mandated a new, simpler Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA. But repeated delays with the project are now coming to a head: The Education Department is unable to process new FAFSAs on time, forcing millions of families to wait weeks, if not months, longer than usual to receive their financial aid packages this spring. The turmoil has already prompted dozens of colleges — including major state university systems — to postpone their typical May 1 deadline for students to commit to their institutions, and many are concerned that more delays are coming…. Beyond the processing problems, students and their families are also reporting glitches on the new FAFSA website, which launched in late December.” (“College Admissions Face New Turmoil After Biden’s Education Department Fumble,” Politico, 2/20/2024)“‘This is equivalent at some level to the IRS not being able to collect tax returns on April 15,’ said David Bergeron, a former senior Education Department official who served across multiple administrations. ‘For people whose kids are in high school today or starting college in the fall, this is a basic operation of government that they just assumed would move along as expected.’” (“College Admissions Face New Turmoil After Biden’s Education Department Fumble,” Politico, 2/20/2024)“The scale of this year’s FAFSA processing problems — which remain unresolved — stands apart in the history of the Education Department, which for decades has doled out billions of dollars of aid to millions of families each year without major incident. A similar widespread delay in financial aid processing during the Clinton administration spurred political blowback and led Congress in 1998 to significantly overhaul the department’s student aid operations.” (“College Admissions Face New Turmoil After Biden’s Education Department Fumble,” Politico, 2/20/2024)“The number of high school seniors filling out the FAFSA is down by about half compared to this time last year, according to federal data analyzed by the National College Attainment Network, a nonprofit focused on helping students prepare for college. The drop in applications is steeper at high schools in lower-income communities and those with large shares of Black and Hispanic students.” (“College Admissions Face New Turmoil After Biden’s Education Department Fumble,” Politico, 2/20/2024)‘This Is Going To Hurt Students’“Career advisers and advocacy groups for disadvantaged students worry that the FAFSA chaos will discourage some students from pursuing a college education. ‘This is going to hurt students,’ said Wil Del Pilar, senior vice president at Education Trust, an advocacy group. ‘These delays — when we’ve known this [new form] has been coming for three years — are really hard.’” (“College Admissions Face New Turmoil After Biden’s Education Department Fumble,” Politico, 2/20/2024)“The reviews from college and university leaders are just as bad. ‘There’s very little you can point to at this point and say, “this is going well,”’ said Jon Fansmith, senior vice president for government relations at the American Council on Education, the umbrella lobbying group for colleges and universities.” (“College Admissions Face New Turmoil After Biden’s Education Department Fumble,” Politico, 2/20/2024)‘The Education Department’s FAFSA Debacle Is Drawing Bipartisan Criticism From Lawmakers On Capitol Hill’“The Education Department’s FAFSA debacle is drawing bipartisan criticism from lawmakers on Capitol Hill demanding answers on when the system will be fixed. Rep. Bobby Scott, the top Democrat on the House education committee, was succinct when asked to assess the Biden administration’s handling of the FAFSA: ‘Not well.’ ‘It is causing a lot of consternation because people can’t get their financial aid packages,’ Scott told POLITICO. ‘It’s caused a lot of confusion.’” (“College Admissions Face New Turmoil After Biden’s Education Department Fumble,” Politico, 2/20/2024)“Republicans, meanwhile, are blasting the Biden administration for gross mismanagement. Rep. Virginia Foxx, the chair of the House education committee, and Sen. Bill Cassidy, the top Republican on the Senate education committee, say the Education Department prioritized various student debt relief programs instead of properly implementing the new FAFSA.” (“College Admissions Face New Turmoil After Biden’s Education Department Fumble,” Politico, 2/20/2024)###SENATE REPUBLICAN COMMUNICATIONS CENTERPrintEmailTweetPreviousTHE NEWSROOMSENATE RESOURCESABOUT LEADER McCONNELLFacebookTwitterInstagram