UTICA – Congresswoman Claudia Tenney (NY-22) is blasting President Biden's executive action to forgive student loans for millions of borrowers.

Under the president's plan, the Department of Education will provide up to $20,000 in debt cancellation to Pell Grant recipients with loans held by the Department of Education, and up to $10,000 in debt cancellation to non-Pell Grant recipients. Borrowers are eligible for this relief if their individual income is less than $125,000 ($250,000 for married couples).

“Pressured by far-left special interests, President Biden has caved once again. Joe Biden’s announcement that he will try to ‘cancel’ federal student loan debt for high earners not only bypasses Congress, it is a blatantly partisan effort to appease his far-left critics amid his record-low poll numbers,” Tenney said in a statement. “It is not only bad policy, it is wholly illegal and if the rule of law still matters in America the decision should be stopped by the Courts. President Biden and his Department of Education have both said previously that the President does not have the authority to take this misguided step, and nothing has changed aside from his falling poll numbers.”

Tenney added that many Americans will now share the burden of paying the bill for college graduates, regardless of their own decisions about attending college.

“With an estimated cost of $300 billion, this disastrous policy is sure to fuel more inflation while catering to higher earners,” she said.

Tenney has called for the Biden Administration to instead work with Congress to take on the costs of higher education.

- Shawn Magrath, Sun Staff Writer