Knudsen hails decision blocking Biden’s student loan forgiveness – Montana

(The Center Square) – Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen is pleased that a federal judge in Kansas granted his request to block President Joe Biden’s student loan relief effort.

“It’s great news that a court is blocking the president’s plan to buy the votes of recent college graduates and push our country deeper into debt,” Knudsen said in a press release.

The attorney general views the loan relief effort as more of an election-year “loan forgiveness plan.”

“Hardworking Montanans should not be forced to foot the bill for anyone’s education, but their own,” the attorney general said.

The decision follows a lawsuit filed by Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach. Knudsen joined this effort with the attorneys general of Alabama, Alaska, Idaho, Iowa, Louisiana, Nebraska, South Carolina, Texas and ‘Utah.

The attorneys general said the Education Department misinterpreted the higher education law and traveled through the U.S. House and Senate to write its own rules. The Biden administration said the president’s SAVE plan would cancel more than $100 billion in student debt and help struggling families make ends meet.

“We’re talking about people who are literally crushed,” White House press secretary Karine Jean Pierre told reporters in May. “They’re trying to get their lives back on track.”

Knudsen argued that canceling student loans would harm Montana’s economy through a loss of tax revenue and jobs for the state, as well as increased law enforcement costs . Knudsen also points out that the U.S. Supreme Court told Biden in 2022 that he did not have the authority to unilaterally cancel student loans through the HEROES Act.

“Now, with a new name and different authority, his administration is once again trying to take the same illegal actions with the SAVE plan,” Knudsen said.

U.S. District Judge Daniel Crabtree, an Obama appointee, issued the ruling Monday. U.S. District Judge John Ross of Missouri issued a similar and separate ruling in another case the same day. Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Missouri, North Dakota, Ohio and Oklahoma are part of this lawsuit.

Referring to his overturn efforts on social media and on the campaign trail, President Biden said Republicans allied with Trump and the Supreme Court did not stop him.