The White House on Monday defended the invocation of a 9/11-era emergency power the administration cited to transfer student loan debt to U.S. taxpayers, as economic adviser Jared Bernstein told Fox News the coronavirus pandemic is a qualifying national emergency.
However, Bernstein was later pressed on how he could cite the pandemic as an emergency at this time, given that the CDC rescinded most of its travel restrictions and that the Biden administration rescinded Title 42 illegal immigration protections – which were invoked by President Trump in order to curb border crossings during a public health emergency.
Title 42 allows, at the U.S. surgeon general's direction, the federal government to deport illegal "persons or property" present in the United States during a public health emergency.
On "The Story," Bernstein was asked to respond to New Hampshire Republican Gov. Chris Sununu, who questioned the constitutionality of President Biden simply writing off the debts of a specific subset of Americans, and placing the onus on taxpayers who may or may not have attended college.
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Bernstein said the legal counsel at the Education Department disagrees with Sununu and a similar imposition by the New York Post editorial board.
He cited the HEROES Act, a post-September 11 law authored by then-Rep. John Kline, R-Minn., which empowered the Education Department to waive student loan requirements for military members, Americans living in a disaster area or through a national emergency.
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The emergency, Bernstein said, is coronavirus.
"It's obviously not 9/11. It's the pandemic. So what the legislation allows us to do as long as the pandemic emergency is still upon the land, based on the type of financial hardship that we believe will be invoked, particularly by restarting payments that haven't been made for a couple of years under the debt pause," he said, adding once the artificial pausing of loan payments subsides at the end of the year, the risk of default among borrowers will increase.
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In response to people upset at the purported "unfairness" of the executive order, Bernstein pointed to pandemic-era PPP loans for small businesses, many of which were forgiven.
"The PPP Plan engaged in very deep loan forgiveness for many business owners just in the last couple of years. So that's not that unusual a government measure. But look, the HEROES Act grants the legal privilege to do this. And that's the analysis," he said.
When pressed on the fact the Biden administration rescinded Title 42 as an apparent tacit admission the pandemic emergency – cited in the case of the loan handout – has subsided, Bernstein reiterated the HEROES Act nonetheless gives Education Secretary Miguel Cardona the aforementioned powers.
"All I'm telling you is that the legal authority to grant debt relief exists under this legislation," he said. "I think that was your question and I think I gave you a fulsome answer."
