In my last post about President Biden's plan to cancel hundreds of billions of dollars in student loan debt, I criticized the administration's claims that the policy is authorized by an emergency power provision of the 2003 HEROES Act. But there is an alternative potential legal justification for the policy: Section 432(a) of the Higher Education Act of 1965, (now codified as 20 U.S.C. Section 1082(a)(6), which authorizes the Secretary of Education to "enforce, pay, compromise, waive, or release any right, title, claim, lien, or demand, however acquired, including any equity or any right of redemption" related to loans authorized by the Federal Direct Loan Program.
