Republicans are currently gaming out where to cut spending to pay for President Donald Trump’s ambitious legislative agenda.
Congressional Republicans are currently gaming out where to cut spending to pay for President Donald Trump’s ambitious legislative agenda. For House and Senate GOP leaders on key education committees, that spending offset calculation may include putting a Joe Biden-era student-loan repayment plan on the chopping block.
It’s possible that Republican legislative efforts to repeal the Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) plan could preempt a circuit appeals court’s impending ruling on the Biden-era program, which was recently hamstrung by GOP-led litigation amid a continuing saga surrounding the former president’s student-debt cancelation efforts.
In a 2023 case called Biden v. Nebraska, the Supreme Court ruled that the Biden administration overstepped its authority under the Higher Education Relief Opportunities for Students (HEROES) Act in canceling $400 billion in student loans in 2022 without congressional approval. Frustrated by the High Court’s decision, the Biden White House then implemented the SAVE Plan, an income-driven repayment plan which a federal district court put on pause after Missouri challenged the rule. The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals issued an injunction pending appeal in August and heard oral arguments in October, meaning the rule is on pause until the court of appeals issues its final decision.
“It’s certainly possible” Congress will act on the SAVE rule before the question is decided in court, Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee chairman Bill Cassidy (R., La.) told National Review on Thursday.
In the lower chamber, the House Education and Workforce Committee is also reportedly eyeing roughly $500 billion in education-related cuts, including potentially repealing the SAVE rule as well as significantly restricting who qualifies for student loans and where to cap the borrowing limit.
Budget negotiations surrounding education-related spending come amid a continuing standoff between Senate and House Republicans over the budget reconciliation process and how to prioritize Trump’s agenda.
House Republican leaders believe that the best way to corral their slim and fractious majority into submission in renewing the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act is to lump a tax-focused package into one big bill that includes Trump’s agenda items on border, defense, and energy.
As a fallback option in the event that Speaker Mike Johnson’s one-bill strategy fails, Senate Republican leaders are moving forward with their preferred two-bill approach that would act first on the three lattermost legislative items while punting a complicated tax fight until later in the year. To pay for Republican border, defense, and energy-related priorities in this year’s reconciliation legislation, Senate Budget Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.) released a budget resolution instructing Republican committee chairmen to identify spending offsets under their areas of jurisdiction.
That includes ordering the HELP Committee to find at least $1 billion in deficit-reducing savings between the fiscal years 2025 through 2034. “I’m not sure I could add any more to the amount of money that’s there,” Cassidy told NR of the Biden-era SAVE Plan, which he sought unsuccessfully to overturn in 2023 via a Congressional Review Act resolution. “And, obviously, it’s mandatory spending,” Cassidy added, meaning it’s “fair game” in this year’s reconciliation budget calculus.
Republican talk of congressional action regarding Biden’s student-loan forgiveness rule will no doubt cause even more party-wide consternation among Senate Democrats, who have spent recent weeks railing against Republican spending cuts and the Trump administration’s broader efforts to shrink parts of the federal bureaucracy at breakneck speed. In a rare overnight session last week Senate Democrats took turns railing against Office of Management and Budget director Russ Vought’s plans to reshape and defund parts of the federal government.
“What is the role of Congress? What did our founding fathers want? What is the role of the courts?” said Senator Amy Klobuchar (D., Minn.) said on the floor. “Can the executive just stand in there and do anything he wants? Of course the answer is no.”
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R., S.D.) has in turn urged his Democratic colleagues to engage in a bit of self-reflection and acknowledge how often Biden went around Congress on an array of issues during his four years in office, including on the matter of student loan forgiveness.
In unilaterally cancelling hundreds of billions of dollars in student debt without congressional approval, Biden’s executive branch chose to “circumvent the law,” Thune argued on the Senate floor, “and folks on this side of the aisle applauded when that happened.”