[House Document 118-46]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]




118th Congress, 1st Session - - - - - - - - - - House Document 118-46
 
                      VETO MESSAGE OF H.J. RES. 45

                               __________

                                MESSAGE

                                  from

                     THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES

                              transmitting

                     A VETO MESSAGE ON H.J. RES. 45









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                  June 9, 2023.--Ordered to be printed 
                  
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                 U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE
                 
39-011                   WASHINGTON : 2023 
                  
                  
                  
                  
                  
                  
                  
                  
                  
                  
                  
                  
To the House of Representatives:
    I am returning herewith without my approval H.J. Res. 45, a 
resolution that would disapprove of the Department of 
Education's rule relating to ``Waivers and Modifications of 
Federal Student Loans.''
    Since Day One, my Administration has been fighting to make 
college cheaper and the student loan system more manageable for 
borrowers. My Administration has championed the largest 
increase to Pell Grants in the last decade--a combined increase 
of $900 to the maximum award for students over the last 2 
years--and has a plan to double the maximum Pell Grant by 2029 
to nearly $13,000. This means more money in students' pockets 
to pay for college. To help individuals who had to borrow to go 
to college, my Administration has been building a student loan 
system that works. The Department of Education has proposed the 
most generous repayment plan ever, which will cut undergraduate 
loan payments in half. It has also reformed the Public Service 
Loan Forgiveness program to make it easier for hundreds of 
thousands of public service employees to get the debt relief 
they deserve.
    The pandemic was devastating for families across the 
Nation. To give borrowers the essential relief they need as 
they recover from the economic strains associated with the 
COVID-19 pandemic, the Department of Education created a 
program to provide up to $10,000 in debt relief--and up to 
$20,000 for Pell Grant recipients--reaching more than 40 
million hard-working Americans. Nearly 90 percent of this 
relief would go to Americans earning less than $75,000 per 
year, and no relief would go to any individual or household in 
the top 5 percent of incomes.
    The demand for this relief is undeniable. In less than 4 
weeks--during the period when the student debt relief 
application was available--26 million people applied or were 
deemed automatically eligible for relief. At least 16 million 
of those borrowers could have received debt relief already if 
it were not for meritless lawsuits waged by opponents of this 
program.
    The Department of Education's action is based on decades 
old authority, granted by the Congress. Multiple 
administrations over the last two decades have used this 
authority, following the same procedures as my Administration, 
to protect borrowers from the effects of national emergencies 
and military deployments. The Department of Education's 
exercise of this authority has never previously been subject to 
the Congressional Review Act.
    It is a shame for working families across the country that 
lawmakers continue to pursue this unprecedented attempt to deny 
critical relief to millions of their own constituents, even as 
several of these same lawmakers have had tens of thousands of 
dollars of their own business loans forgiven by the Federal 
Government.
    I remain committed to continuing to make college affordable 
and providing this critical relief to borrowers as they work to 
recover from a once-in-a-century pandemic.
    Therefore, I am vetoing this resolution.

                                               Joseph R. Biden, Jr.
    The White House, June 7, 2023.

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