Regardless of Supreme Court Ruling, Congress Can Stop Future Student Loan Bailouts
- BY FGA
All eyes are on the Supreme Court now that the justices have heard oral arguments related to the administration’s unilateral attempts to “cancel” student loans that could cost our country $1 trillion over 10 years.
It didn’t have to be this way. In a new paper for FGA, Alli Fick and Haley Holik highlight how Congress could have put a stop to this student loan scheme—and can stop future pricey bureaucratic actions like it.
The Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny (REINS) Act restores the primary role of the legislative branch: the power to decide matters of policy. Under REINS, any major regulation that would cost more than $100 million annually would have to come before Congress for approval before it could be implemented.
But, the paper notes, the Biden administration often skirts around public input and the notice-and-comment required of rules and official regulations by issuing “guidance.” Guidance isn’t supposed to substantively change the law, but as we saw with the student loan cancellation scheme, the Biden administration uses fact sheets and press releases to sidestep Congress and spend massive amounts of taxpayer money.
To prevent this, the REINS Act should also be accompanied by clarification from Congress that guidance documents also are subject to congressional review.
For more on the student loan issue, click here to read the paper in its entirety. And for more on the REINS Act, visit our educational page.
