House takes step toward gutting Biden's $400 billion student loan handout

House Republicans on Wednesday advanced legislation to kill President Biden’s attempt to cancel student loan debt for tens of millions of borrowers, a controversial move that the government has said would cost it more than $400 billion.

The House Education and the Workforce Committee passed a resolution aimed at terminating Biden’s policy, which was supported by every Republican on the committee and opposed by every Democrat. Committee passage means the resolution, from Rep. Bob Good, R-Va., now has a chance to get a vote on the House floor.

"I am pleased to lead the House effort to overturn President Biden’s student loan transfer scheme that would burden the wallets of hardworking American taxpayers to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars," Good told Fox News Digital. "His plan to force American citizens to pay off the debts of others is unfair, unethical, unconstitutional and unlawful."

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"As my legislation is readied for the House floor, I urge my colleagues to vote to put an end to President Biden’s reckless actions," he added.

During committee debate, Democrats warned that voting down Biden’s student loan handout would strip away relief that millions of people are anticipating.

"This resolution… would hurt millions of student borrowers and their families," said Rep. Bobby Scott, D-Va. "Forty-three million student borrowers across the country are eligible for loan relief, including 139,000 in my district."

Scott added that the resolution "seeks to deny all of these borrowers the relief they were promised." But Republicans dismissed Biden's plan as a radical attempt to redistribute wealth.

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"Student loan forgiveness is nothing more than a transfer of wealth from those who willingly took on debt to those who did not or had the grit to pay off their loans," said Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., who added that most student loan debt is held by graduate students.

"In other words, President Biden is forcing the very people Democrats claim to care about — low-income families, disadvantaged populations and blue-collar workers who never step foot on a college campus — to pay someone else’s tuition bill," she said.

Biden announced last summer that he would cancel up to $10,000 in student loans for people making less than $125,000, and up to $20,000 for students who received Pell Grants. That program was expected to cost the government more than $400 billion in lost debt repayment, but the program was put on hold after a court blocked it. The matter is now in the hands of the Supreme Court, which could decide the legality of the program by the end of June.

Good’s resolution was written under the Congressional Review Act, which lets Congress reject an executive branch policy as long as both the House and Senate pass a resolution disapproving of that policy.

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Assuming House Republicans pass Good’s resolution, it would then be up to the Senate, where passage is unlikely as Senate Democrat leaders support Biden’s plan.

However, Congress has had some success fighting Biden administration policies using the Congressional Review Act, even though Democrats control the Senate. In March, for example, the Senate voted 53-43 to overturn a Biden regulation expanding the government’s ability to regulate water sources.

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And last week, the Senate voted 50-48 to overturn a Biden rule protecting the lesser prairie chicken.