President Biden's administration faces yet another lawsuit as a growing number of states seek to block his student loan handout plan, with Missouri and six other states filing a complaint on Tuesday.
Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey's lawsuit argues that Biden's "SAVE" plan, announced in February, is illegal and would cost American taxpayers $475 billion. Bailey's lawsuit comes just weeks after Kansas and 10 other states sued the Biden administration over the same plan.
"With the stroke of his pen, Joe Biden is attempting to saddle working Missourians with a half trillion dollars in debt. The United States Constitution makes clear that the President lacks the authority to unilaterally ‘cancel’ student loan debt for millions of Americans without express permission from Congress," Bailey told Fox News Digital.
"The President does not get to thwart the Constitution when it suits his political agenda. I’m filing suit to halt his embarrassing attempt to buy the 2024 election in direct violation of the law. The Constitution will continue to mean something as long as I’m Attorney General."
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Joining Bailey in the lawsuit are the attorneys general of Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Ohio, Oklahoma and North Dakota.
Missouri and Arkansas both participated in the lawsuit that ultimately brought an end to Biden's previous student loan plan last year. The Supreme Court decided 6-3 that Biden's plan was unconstitutional.
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"President Biden has already lost on this question once, and he is refusing to follow the law. The Supreme Court could not have been clearer: President Biden cannot unilaterally cancel student debt and force taxpayers to bear the multi-billion-dollar cost," Arkansas AG Tim Griffin told Fox News Digital.
The lawsuit argues that Biden's SAVE plan is part of "a long but troubling pattern of the President relying on innocuous language from decades-old statutes to impose drastic, costly policy changes on the American people without their consent."
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital, but the Biden administration previously defended the SAVE program against the lawsuit led by Kansas.
"The Department does not comment on pending litigation. However, Congress gave the U.S. Department of Education the authority to define the terms of income-driven repayment plans in 1993, and the SAVE plan is the fourth time the Department has used that authority," an Education Department spokesperson said at the time. "The Biden-Harris Administration won’t stop fighting to provide support and relief to borrowers across the country – no matter how many times Republican elected officials try to stop us."
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Tuesday's lawsuit lands just one day after Biden announced yet another plan to cancel student loan debt. This latest one focuses on cutting loans that have exceeded their principal amount due to interest. It would cut up to $20,000 in accrued interest for borrowers, but borrowers who make less than $120,000 or couples who make less than $240,000 would be allowed to cut all of their accrued interest beyond the principal amount.
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The result would see roughly 23 million Americans having their loans cut down to the principal amount.
Bailey's and Griffin's offices did not immediately say whether they had plans to challenge the newest plan.
Read the full Missouri lawsuit below:
