To find the authority to cancel billions of dollars in student loans, President Biden turned to two words in a 2003 law: “national emergency.”
President George W. Bush had troops in Afghanistan and Iraq when Congress passed the Higher Education Relief Opportunities for Students Act of 2003. The bill, also known as the HEROES Act of 2003, gives the Secretary of Education authority to change student financial assistance programs during a war, military operation, or “national emergency.”
Nineteen years later, the Biden administration cited that law this month in announcing a plan to forgive up to $10,000 of student loan debt (and $20,000 of education debt for Pell Grant recipients) for those earning less than $125,000.
