Brookhaven Daily Leader
MS senators contest Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan
By Daily Leader Staff
U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.), of Brookhaven, and Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) are among 43 Republican senators who filed an amicus brief to the Supreme Court of the United States, supporting respondents in the dual Supreme Court cases challenging Biden’s student loan debt relief program, Biden v. Nebraska and Department of Education v. Brown.
The senators argue the unilateral decision to forgive federal student loan debt in these circumstances constitutes unprecedented executive overreach and defies the separation of powers between Congress and the president.
“There can be no dispute, then, that the powers to spend and forgive the monies owed the Treasury rest with Congress alone,” they contend in their amicus brief. “The President is not a king, and he has no power to dispense with the lawful acts of the legislature.”
The brief was led by Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, and — in addition to Hyde-Smith and Wicker — was signed by 38 other senators.
The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments in both cases on Feb. 28.
The full brief can be read here.