To: Chair Virginia Foxx, Ranking Member Bobby Scott, and Members of the Education and Workforce Committee
From: National Taxpayers Union
Date: May 9th, 2023
Subject: NTU Supports the Congressional Review Act Resolution to Stop President Biden’s Unilateral Student Debt Plan
Introduction and Key Taxpayer Considerations
On behalf of National Taxpayers Union (NTU), the nation’s oldest taxpayer advocacy organization, we write to urge support for H.J. Res. 45, the Congressional Review Act resolution to prevent the transfer of nearly $400 billion in debt to federal taxpayers.
This resolution will prevent President Biden’s extremely costly and likely unconstitutional student loan debt transfer plan and to remove this potential authority from being exercised in the future. NTU applauds Rep. Good for introducing this resolution and urges all members of Congress to sign on as a co-sponsor and support its immediate passage.
As NTU has written, Biden’s plan to cancel the debt of millions of borrowers would cost billions of dollars for taxpayers nationwide. NTU’s most recent calculations, which include the Income-Driven Repayment plan, derive from the Congressional Budget Office estimates of the budgetary impacts of the NTU-supported H.R. 2811, the Limit, Save, Grow Act. NTU now estimates the cost at over $570 billion and $3,526,72 per taxpayer. NTU estimates that the taxpayers of the members of this committee alone will pay over $52 billion for the full Biden plan.
NTU remains concerned about lingering effects that a debt forgiveness bonanza will have on future borrowers’ appetite for risk and on universities’ tuition decisions. This cancellation of debt places the burden on all taxpayers for the benefit of a select few who attended college at a specific point in time.
The Biden administration’s use of the COVID-19 national emergency in combination with the Higher Education Relief for Students Act of 2003 is a major expansion of executive authority and an extremely novel interpretation of the underlying law. This expansion could lead to further issues and executive branch usurpation of Congress’ power of the purse.
This resolution will dissuade the executive branch from other expansions of its authority, prevent the transfer of billions in debt payments to all taxpayers, and prevent this authority from being spuriously activated in the future. We urge all members of this committee to support this CRA.
Calculated Cost Per Congressional District of Members of the 118th House Education and Workforce Committee [TABLE]
State | CD | # of Returns | Cost per CD | Cost per CD in Billions | ||
Rep. Virginia Foxx | North Carolina | NC | 5 | 346,460 | $1,221,867,411 | $1.22 |
Rep. Joe Wilson | South Carolina | SC | 2 | 352,700 | $1,243,874,144 | $1.24 |
Rep. Glenn Thompson | Pennsylvania | PA | 15 | 333,370 | $1,175,702,646 | $1.18 |
Rep. Tim Walberg | Michigan | MI | 5 | 337,520 | $1,190,338,534 | $1.19 |
Rep. Glenn Grothman | Wisconsin | WI | 6 | 371,490 | $1,310,141,213 | $1.31 |
Rep. Elise Stefanik | New York | NY | 21 | 330,040 | $1,163,958,669 | $1.16 |
Rep. Rick Allen | Georgia | GA | 12 | 320,610 | $1,130,701,699 | $1.13 |
Rep. Jim Banks | Indiana | IN | 3 | 371,690 | $1,310,846,557 | $1.31 |
Rep. Jim Comer | Kentucky | KY | 1 | 315,420 | $1,112,398,022 | $1.11 |
Rep. Lloyd Smucker | Pennsylvania | PA | 11 | 380,430 | $1,341,670,090 | $1.34 |
Rep. Burgess Owens | Utah | UT | 4 | 400,440 | $1,412,239,757 | $1.41 |
Rep. Bob Good | Virginia | VA | 5 | 346,380 | $1,221,585,274 | $1.22 |
Rep. Lisa McClain | Michigan | MI | 9 | 388,670 | $1,370,730,262 | $1.37 |
Rep. Mary E Miller | Illinois | IL | 15 | 317,080 | $1,118,252,378 | $1.12 |
Rep. Michelle Steel | California | CA | 45 | 402,490 | $1,419,469,533 | $1.42 |
Rep. Ron Estes | Kansas | KS | 4 | 347,940 | $1,227,086,957 | $1.23 |
Rep. Julia Letlow | Louisiana | LA | 5 | 311,030 | $1,096,915,722 | $1.10 |
Rep. Kevin Kiley | California | CA | 3 | 354,130 | $1,248,917,354 | $1.25 |
Rep. Aaron Bean | Florida | FL | 4 | 451,500 | $1,592,314,080 | $1.59 |
Rep. Eric Burlison | Missouri | MO | 7 | 377,350 | $1,330,807,792 | $1.33 |
Rep. Nathaniel Moran | Texas | TX | 1 | 326,750 | $1,152,355,760 | $1.15 |
Rep. John James | Michigan | MI | 10 | 380,230 | $1,340,964,746 | $1.34 |
Rep. Lori Chavez-Deremer | Oregon | OR | 5 | 413,350 | $1,457,769,712 | $1.46 |
Rep. Brandon Williams | New York | NY | 22 | 324,780 | $1,145,408,122 | $1.15 |
Rep. Erin Houchin | Indiana | IN | 9 | 369,030 | $1,301,465,482 | $1.30 |
Republican Total | $31,637,781,916 | |||||
Rep. Bobby Scott | Virginia | VA | 3 | 367,630 | $1,296,528,074 | $1.30 |
Rep. Raul Grijalva | Arizona | AZ | 7 | 352,520 | $1,243,239,334 | $1.24 |
Rep. Joe Courtney | Connecticut | CT | 2 | 356,940 | $1,258,827,437 | $1.26 |
Rep. Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan | NMI | NMI figures were not in release | ||||
Rep. Frederica Wilson | Florida | FL | 24 | 398,380 | $1,404,974,714 | $1.40 |
Rep. Suzanne Bonamici | Oregon | OR | 1 | 425,600 | $1,500,972,032 | $1.50 |
Rep. Mark Takano | California | CA | 39 | 373,240 | $1,316,312,973 | $1.32 |
Rep. Alma S. Adams | North Carolina | NC | 12 | 456,680 | $1,610,582,490 | $1.61 |
Rep. Mark DeSaulnier | California | CA | 10 | 360,290 | $1,270,641,949 | $1.27 |
Rep. Donald Norcross | New Jersey | NJ | 1 | 376,220 | $1,326,822,598 | $1.33 |
Rep. Pramila Jayapal | Washington | WA | 7 | 427,470 | $1,507,566,998 | $1.51 |
Rep. Susan Wild | Pennsylvania | PA | 7 | 386,700 | $1,363,782,624 | $1.36 |
Rep. Lucy McBath | Georgia | GA | 7 | 413,470 | $1,458,192,918 | $1.46 |
Rep. Jahana Hayes | Connecticut | CT | 5 | 369,390 | $1,302,735,101 | $1.30 |
Rep. Ilhan Omar | Minnesota | MN | 5 | 370,880 | $1,307,989,914 | $1.31 |
Rep. Haley M. Stevens | Michigan | MI | 11 | 395,530 | $1,394,923,562 | $1.39 |
Rep. Teresa Leger Fernandez | New Mexico | NM | 3 | 329,480 | $1,161,983,706 | $1.16 |
Rep. Kathy E. Manning | North Carolina | NC | 6 | 384,930 | $1,357,540,330 | $1.36 |
Rep. Frank J. Mrvan | Indiana | IN | 1 | 359,340 | $1,267,291,565 | $1.27 |
Rep. Jamaal Bowman | New York | NY | 16 | 384,890 | $1,357,399,261 | $1.36 |
Democratic Total | $25,708,307,580 | |||||
Contact Information
Thank you for your consideration. Should you have any questions about the content in this memo, please do not hesitate to reach out to Nicholas Johns at NJohns@ntu.org.