HELENA – A federal judge in Kansas today granted Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen’s request to block the Biden administration’s unconstitutional student loan forgiveness scheme. Attorney General Knudsen released the following statement in response:

“This is great news that a court is blocking the President’s plan to buy votes from young, recent graduates and driving our country deeper into debt. Hardworking Montanans should not be forced to foot the bill for anyone’s education, but their own.”

Attorney General Knudsen filed a lawsuit against President Biden’s plan in March.

The Department of Education wrongly interpreted the Higher Education Act and bypassed Congress by writing its own rules that would turn most loans, if not wipe them completely out, into grants from the federal government, where borrowers only pay a fraction of the amount owed. By the department’s own estimates, the “SAVE Plan” would cancel over $100 billion in student debt. The cancellation of the loans would directly impact Montana’s economy through a loss of state tax revenue and jobs, as well as increasing law enforcement costs.

In 2022, another election year, President Biden and the Department of Education tried to unilaterally cancel student loans for millions of borrowers through the HEROES Act, but the Supreme Court ruled they didn’t have the authority. Now with a new name, and a different authority, his administration is once again trying to take the same unlawful steps with the “SAVE Plan.”