Thursday night vote would clear the way for the bill to hit Joe Biden’s desk over the weekend; White House vows to use veto.
Senate blocks Biden's student loan relief program; White House will veto
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Senators have voted to block one of Joe Biden’s flagship policy promises, progressing a bill that would repeal his student debt relief program and end the administration’s pause on federal student loan payment.
The vote was 52-46 to advance the legislation, NBC reported, with Democrats Joe Manchin (West Virginia) and Jon Tester (Montana), plus Arizona independent Kyrsten Sinema, breaking ranks and joining Republicans.
The bill, however, will not become law because Biden said in a statement last month that he would veto it.
“This resolution is an unprecedented attempt to undercut our historic economic recovery and would deprive more than 40 million hard-working Americans of much-needed student debt relief,” Biden said.
“[The bill] would weaken America’s middle class. Americans should be able to have a little more breathing room as they recover from the economic strains associated with the Covid-19 pandemic.”
OUSTON (AP) — A revised version of a federal policy that prevents the deportation of hundreds of thousands of immigrants brought to the U.S. as children is set to be debated Thursday before a federal judge who previously ruled the program illegal.
Attorneys representing the nine states that have sued to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, lawyers for the U.S. Justice Department and DACA recipients were scheduled to appear at a court hearing before U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen.
In 2021, Hanen declared DACA illegal, ruling that the program had not been subjected to public notice and comment periods required under the federal Administrative Procedures Act. Hanen also said the states seeking to stop it had standing to file their lawsuit because they had been harmed by the program.
The states claimed they incur hundreds of millions of dollars in health care, education and other costs when immigrants are allowed to remain in the country illegally. The states that sued are Texas, Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Nebraska, South Carolina, West Virginia, Kansas and Mississippi.
Ron DeSantis has stepped up his attacks on Donald Trump, accusing the former president of siding with the Disney corporation in its battle with the Florida governor.
Mr DeSantis has made his first election trip to Iowa this week, a pivotal state in the race for the party’s nomination.
Trailing behind Mr Trump in the latest polls, Mr DeSantis came out swinging at a news conference on Monday after months of being treated as a “punchbag” by the former president.
The powerful Disney corporation has been at the centre of the “war on woke” declared by Mr DeSantis ever since he announced plans to strip the entertainment giant of its ability to self govern the land status of Disney World.