Kansas, Missouri enter lawsuit over Biden's student loan forgiveness plan

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Six states, including Kansas and Missouri, are suing President Joe Biden, Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona and the U.S. Department of Education over the Biden administration's student loan forgiveness plan.

The lawsuit was filed in the Eastern Missouri U.S. District Court Thursday morning and argues the plan is an overreach of power, in addition to being "economically unwise and downright unfair."

"No statute permits President Biden to unilaterally relieve millions of individuals from their obligation to pay loans they voluntarily assumed," the suit reads.

The plaintiffs further argue the plan will only benefit borrowers in the top 60% of earners.

VIEW: Find the full lawsuit here

Attorney generals from Nebraska, Arkansas and South Carolina, as well as legal representatives from Iowa, are joining Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt and Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt in an effort to block the plan.

According to a Thursday morning release by Schmidt, the plan relies on the 2003 HEROES Act, which he said applied to particular service members seeking relief but did not give Biden the ability to cancel student debt.

"It is inconceivable that when Congress passed the HEROES Act, it thought it was authorizing the president to unilaterally decree something like the Mass Debt Cancellation, which will result in around half a trillion dollars in losses to the federal treasury, which ultimately means losses to U.S. taxpayers," the release read.

Schmitt tweeted about the suit, calling it an "unconstitutional action ... that will saddle working-class families with even more economic woes."

Under the plan, forgiveness of up to $10,000 will be given to all individual borrowers who earned less than $125,000 in 2021, or to couples and heads of household who earned $250,000. Pell grant recipients are eligible for up to $20,000 of forgiveness.