Republican SUES Biden administration over latest student loan plan with $1.2 billion in handouts accusing the president of trying to 'curry favor' with younger voters ahead of the 2024 election

Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach is suing the Biden administration to block President Biden's latest effort to cancel student loan debt.

The Biden administration has forgiven $143.6 billion in student loan debt for nearly four million Americans since Biden took office, but Republican officials want to put an end to it.

Kobach appeared on Fox News on Thursday where he said he would be filing a lawsuit in Kansas. Kansas is backed in the lawsuit by ten other states Alabama, Alaska, Idaho, Iowa, Louisiana, Montana, Nebraska, South Carolina, Texas and Utah.

Attorneys General from Missouri and Arkansas also signaled they were joining the multi-state coalition challenging the administration.

Kobach said the case against canceling student loan debt would be similar to when a group of Republican states sued to block President Biden's original plan to cancel up to $20,000 in student loan debt. 

Kansas was among the six states that sued the Biden administration in 2022 over its first debt forgiveness plan. 

In June 2023, the Supreme Court ruled against the Biden administration, but President Biden and education officials vowed to press forward with their efforts to cancel student loan debt.

Just months after the highest court blocked Biden's first student debt plan, the administration launched the SAVE plan, an income drive repayment plan that cuts down on the amount to time and money some borrowers have to pay before their student loan debt is forgiven.

Last month, the  administration began canceling billions in debt under the plan. 

'It was illegal when the Biden administration attempted to cancel student loan debt in 2022, and the Supreme Court held so by a six to three decision last summer,' Kobach said.

He blasted the administration accusing them of attempting a similar move.

'Now they're doing it again, and they've been kind of keeping their cards close to their chest as to how they're doing it,' Kobach said. 'Its become evident that this is going to be, probably well in excess of $200 billion cancelation of debt.'

He said the majority of student loan borrowers will have the 'entirety of their debt canceled' and argued they're going it by 'twisting the words of federal law.'

'This time they say, "oh we're just modifying the terms of debt repayment," but that's not modifying the terms of debt repayment when you take the debt all the way down to zero and you don't have to pay back the principal.'

Kobach blasted the move as unfair to taxpayers who did not go to college or take out loans, forcing them to cover the debt burden of those who did.

Kobach announced he will be filing the lawsuit in the federal district court in Kansas. He acknowledged the case would likely end up in the 10th Circuit Court on appeals and potentially end up back in the Supreme Court.

He said it is something that is politically important as well as voters head to the polls for the presidential election in November. 

'We hope to have an injunction in place before November,' Kobach said. 

'It may just be coincidence, or it maybe that the administration is attempting to curry favor with people who have student debt,' he said, taking issue with the timing of the latest effort to cancel debt.

'I’m extremely pleased to see Kansas is leading a multi-state coalition in challenging President Biden’s latest attempt to unlawfully transfer hundreds of thousands of dollars in Ivy League debt onto working Missouri families,' Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey said in response.

'I’m pleased to share that my office is also leading a multi-state coalition and will be filing suit in Missouri in the coming days,' Bailey added.

This week, the White House launched the 'SAVE Day of Action' to promote enrollment in the new program. Their expect their effort could reach more than 100 million Americans. 

The SAVE plan is an income driven repayment plan that cancels the debt of borrowers who took out $12,000 or less after as little as ten years. 

In February, the administration began canceling debt under the plan including $1.2 billion for 153,000 borrowers.

The administration has said more than 7.7 million people borrowers have enrolled in the plan. 

The Education Department said it would continue to identify borrowers who qualify for their debt to be forgiven on a continuing basis. 

Republicans in Congress attempted to pass a resolution to block the plan but did not have the necessary votes.  

The Biden administration has taken multiple steps to cancel student loan debt including changes to the public services loan forgiveness and the income driven repayment programs as well as canceling debt for borrowers with permanent disability and more.

The multifaceted approach has allowed them cancel nearly $144 billion in loan debt since 2021 for nearly four million Americans.