Welcome to The Hill’s Business & Economy newsletter
{beacon}
Business & Economy
Business & Economy
PRESENTED BY
The Big Story
Republicans offer their own student loans plans ahead of SCOTUS decision
Senate Republicans are rolling out plans aimed at addressing college costs as borrowers nationwide brace for the Supreme Court’s upcoming decision on the legality of President Biden’s student loan relief plan.
Some experts are already expecting the plan won’t survive deliberations by the court’s conservative-majority justices — and Republicans appear to see a potential opening for alternative action on student loans.
A package rolled out by Senate Republicans earlier this week featured a handful of bills to tackle how colleges give students information before they attend and enact changes to federal student loan options.
House Republicans also introduced a plan that would allow borrowers who already paid off the original principal and interest amount on their student loans to receive debt relief.
“Our federal higher education financing system contributes more to the problem than the solution. Colleges and universities using the availability of federal loans to increase their tuitions have left too many students drowning in debt without a path for success,” said Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), who’s helping lead the effort in the upper chamber.
Cassidy argued the plan would “downward pressure on tuition and empowers students to make the educational decisions that put them on track to academically and financially succeed.”
However, some advocates have been quick to disagree.
“None of this addresses the root problem,” the Student Debt Collective said in response to the legislation. “We don’t have an ‘information’ crisis. We have a student debt crisis. These bills will guarantee the crisis only gets worse for future generations. This is doubling down on debt-for-education.”
The push comes as Republicans have mobilized against a sweeping plan announced by the Biden administration last year to provide up to $20,000 in student loan forgiveness to some borrowers.
Earlier this month, Biden also vetoed a GOP-led legislative effort to overturn the plan as the administration awaits the decision from the Supreme Court.
Welcome to The Hill’s Business & Economy newsletter, we’re Aris Folley and Sylvan Lane — covering the intersection of Wall Street and Pennsylvania Avenue.
U.S. pharmaceutical company Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS) on Friday became the latest organization to file a legal challenge against the the Medicare drug price negotiation program established by the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).
UPS Teamsters voted overwhelmingly to authorize their union to call a strike if no deal is reached by the current contract’s expiration date of Aug. 1, the union announced Friday.
WASHINGTON (AP) — If you hopped on Reddit to scroll through your favorite forums this week, you may have encountered “private” or “restricted” messages. That’s because thousands of subreddits chose to go dark in an ongoing protest over the company’s plan to start charging certain third-party developers to access the site’s data.
Unlocking access to homeownership requires policymakers to act now. This National Homeownership Month, we’re advocating for solutions that improve housing supply and affordability in America. Learn more.
Good to Know
Business and economic news we’ve flagged from other outlets:
Wall Street’s China Dream Gets Frustrated—Again (WSJ)
Senate panel to consider bill targeting executive pay at failed banks (Reuters)
Binance France chief brushed off concerns days before police visit (CNBC)
The Justice Department on Friday filed a motion seeking to block former President Trump from releasing any classified materials that will be shared with his legal team during his prosecution for the mishandling of records at Mar-a-Lago, noting that some are still being used in the course of their … Read more
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Thursday that a loss to Russia could ultimately force the U.S. to choose between the “collapse of NATO” or going to war. Read more
What People Think
Opinions related to business and economic issues submitted to The Hill: