The President Is Abusing His Emergency Powers, and Congress Must Take Them Away

From NATIONAL REVIEW.com.

Per CNN:

The Biden administration is yet again extending the pause on federal student loan payments, a benefit that began in March 2020 to help people who were struggling financially due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The extension comes as the Biden administration’s student loan forgiveness program is tied up in the courts. Officials had told borrowers the forgiveness program, which is worth up to $20,000 in debt relief per borrower, would be implemented before loan payments were set to resume in January.

The payment pause will last until 60 days after the litigation is resolved. If the program has not been implemented and the litigation has not been resolved by June 30, payments will resume 60 days after that, according to the Department of Education.

That “yet again” is well deserved. Payments on federal student loans have now been “paused” for two and a half years — across two presidencies — on the grounds that (a) we are in the middle of an emergency, and (b) this emergency is materially hurting borrowers. At one point, this was arguable, albeit, in my estimation, unconvincing. Now, it is a joke. At this stage, the measure no longer represents a “pause” but a policy, and the “emergency” no longer resembles an emergency but an excuse. At the first opportunity, Congress must bring an end to the ruse.

Unlike with his flagrantly illegal attempt to “cancel” — read, transfer — student-loan debt, President Biden does have the statutory authority to defer student-loan repayments in case of emergency. But that authority relies entirely on there being an extant emergency in the first place, and, as the president himself has conceded, that emergency no longer exists. Why does he keep formally extending the declaration nevertheless? Simple. Because, given the makeup of Congress, that emergency declaration now represents the primary source of his power. With the emergency, he can keep student-loan repayments paused, expand Medicaid, and more. Without the emergency, he’s a lame duck.

Or, rather, without the emergency, he’s not a king but a president of the United States, as the role was envisioned under Articles I and II. Covid is over. And, because Covid is over, it is high time that Congress stepped in and told the president that enough is enough. Earlier this month, the Senate did just that, by 62–36. That measure, alas, is likely to die a quick death in the Nancy Pelosi–controlled House. But next year, when Pelosi is gone and her role is being played by a Republican, things may look a little different.

At the very least, lawmakers in both houses of the next Congress ought to vote again to end the declaration — even if they do not have sufficient support to override a veto. And, once they’ve done that, they should do so again and again and again, until they have successfully restored authority to their own branch. When the Senate voted to end the emergency last March, the tally was 48–47. By November, it was 62–36. At some point, that number will hit 67 — enough to overcome a veto — and, when it does, Congress will have a chance to restore our system of government to some semblance of normalcy. It must take that chance, and while it’s at it, it might consider scouring the statute books with an eye to trimming the vast reef of emergency powers that has developed without check over time, and which makes an ongoing mockery of our hallowed separation of powers.