[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 4815 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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118th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                S. 4815

          To prohibit the mass cancellation of student loans.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             July 25, 2024

  Mr. Romney (for himself, Mr. Cassidy, Mr. Tillis, and Mr. Scott of 
South Carolina) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and 
  referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
          To prohibit the mass cancellation of student loans.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Student Loan Accountability Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds the following:
            (1) Congress does not hide elephants in mouseholes; 
        statutory authority has not been provided to the executive 
        branch of the Federal Government to cancel student loans on a 
        mass scale.
            (2) In 2023, the Supreme Court struck down the Biden 
        Administration's attempt at mass cancellation of student loans 
        in Biden v. Nebraska, 600 U.S. 477 (2023), concluding that 
        ```[t]he basic and consequential tradeoffs' inherent in a mass 
        debt cancellation program `are ones that Congress would likely 
        have intended for itself''' and `` . . . our precedent--old and 
        new--requires that Congress speak clearly before a Department 
        Secretary can unilaterally alter large sections of the American 
        economy.''.
            (3) It is unfair for taxpayers who already paid their 
        student loans, chose not to pursue higher education, or worked 
        hard to pay for their education without taking on student loan 
        debt, to foot the bill of millions of borrowers.

SEC. 3. PROHIBITION ON MASS CANCELLATION OF STUDENT LOANS.

    (a) Prohibition.--
            (1) In general.--Notwithstanding any other provision of 
        law, the Secretary of Education, the Secretary of the Treasury, 
        or the Attorney General shall not take any action to cancel or 
        forgive the outstanding balances, or portion of balances, of 
        covered loans, except as provided in paragraph (2).
            (2) Exemption.--The prohibition described in paragraph (1) 
        shall not apply to targeted Federal student loan forgiveness, 
        cancellation, or repayment programs carried out under the 
        Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1001 et seq.), under 
        final regulations as in effect on May 11, 2022.
    (b) Definitions.--In this section, the term ``covered loan'' 
means--
            (1) a loan made, insured, or guaranteed under part B, D, or 
        E of title IV of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 
        1071 et seq.; 1087a et seq.; 1087aa et seq.) before, on, or 
        after the date of enactment of this Act; or
            (2) a loan under the Health Education Assistance Loan 
        Program under title VII of the Public Health Service Act (42 
        U.S.C. 292 et seq.) made before, on, or after the date of 
        enactment of this Act.
    (c) Limitation.--The Secretary of Education, the Secretary of the 
Treasury, or the Attorney General may not implement, or publish in any 
form, any regulation, or take any action, that modifies, alters, 
amends, cancels, discharges, forgives, or defers the repayment of any 
student debt not expressly permitted within statute or regulation as in 
effect on March 12, 2020, regarding covered loans, except to the extent 
that such regulation or action reflects the clear and unequivocal 
intent of Congress in legislation.
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