(Bloomberg) — The top Republicans on two House committees want details from the White House on whether any administration officials who worked on President Joe Biden’s student loan debt forgiveness plan will personally benefit from it.
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“We write to request documents and information to determine whether Biden Administration officials have a conflict of interest in advocating for and enacting this massive government handout in which they or their family members would receive a financial benefit at the expense of American taxpayers,” Representatives James Comer of Kentucky and Virginia Foxx of North Carolina write in a letter Thursday to White House Counsel Stuart Delery.
Comer is the ranking Republican on the Oversight and Reform Committee and Foxx is the top GOP member of the Education and Labor panel.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said she hadn’t seen the letter, and declined to comment on it or whether the administration considered aides with student loan balances to be biased in consideration of the policy. She said the debt relief is aimed at middle- and lower-income people, with an estimated 90% of the aid going to people making $75,000 or less.
Biden announced last month that the government will cancel up to $10,000 in student loans — $20,000 for those who received Pell Grants — with eligibility limited to individuals making up to $125,000 a year, or households taking in $250,000 or less.
The two lawmakers cited a May 19 Bloomberg News report that at least 30 senior White House staffers collectively could have as much as $4.7 million in outstanding student loans, based on required financial disclosure filings.
The income limits presumably would disqualify some senior administration officials, but it’s unknown how many White House aides might benefit from loan relief, as the disclosures are incomplete and report a range of lenders. Comer and Foxx wrote that Biden’s plan doesn’t exempt administration employees and that “raises concerns that political appointees with student loans will financially benefit from a policy they crafted.”
Comer and Foxx are asking for a list of all Biden administration employees who worked on the loan forgiveness plan and whether they have outstanding student loans that would be forgiven. They said the Office of Government Ethics already has informed them that no White House official sought an ethics waiver to work on “student loan bailout proposals.”
Republicans are the minority party in the House and don’t control committees or have subpoena power. But the request from Comer and Foxx is another example of the numerous inquiries Biden would face if the GOP takes over the House next year as a result of the November midterm elections, as is widely expected. Republicans already have been revving up a list of subjects to pursue within the Biden administration.
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