meanwhile today in Washington the U.S Supreme Court has struck down President Biden's student loan forgiveness plan calling it an overreach and a 6-3 decision the majority opinion found the Biden Administration didn't have legal authority to cancel debt for millions of Americans without Congressional approval though some Progressive critics say there's still a way for Biden to cancel student loans Through The Higher Education Act the plan would have forgiven up to twenty thousand dollars for a qualifying borrowers President Biden weighed in on the decision today 16 million people have already been approved the money was literally about to go out the door and then Republican elected officials and special interests stepped in they said no no literally snatching from the hands of millions of Americans thousands of dollars in student debt relief that was about to change their lives you know these Republican officials just couldn't bear the thought of providing relief for working class middle class Americans Republican state officials sued my Administration attempting to block relief including millions of their own constituents the ruling comes just months after student loan repayments will be due for the first time in more than three years senior correspondent Joanna Gagis reports it is a terrible day for student borrowers across the country in a major upset for the Biden Administration and 40 million national student loan borrowers the Supreme Court today upended a debt forgiveness plan that would have helped people like Tom a lot Escape some of their crushing debt uh saving to move out in this year and that's one thing where you know pandemic and student loans definitely kept that longer than planned Malad is still living in his family home four years after graduating college just before the start of a pandemic I understand I took the loans but you know like many borrowers the you know beginning of a loan and then to where it is now is wildly different he's one of the nearly 1.1 million borrowers in New Jersey who would have benefited from the loan forgiveness plan nearly half of them could have seen up to twenty thousand dollars in loans erased completely according to the U.S Department of Education advocates for the program like Beverly Brown Rouge are dismayed it flies in the face of a great tradition in our country of higher education being a pathway to Financial Security Rutgers University law professor Ron Chen says it's less about the merits of the program and more a move yet again by this conservative Supreme Court to shift power away from the executive branch of government they're trying to rein in the the administrative State or the ability of the executive to use a very broadly worded delegations of power from Congress and run with it in directions that the court thinks Congress did not intend the case hinged on whether President Biden was authorized to create this debt relief program under the heroes Act of 2003 in which Congress then provided the ability for the Department of Education to waive or modify loans for those facing a crisis at that time the 9 11 attacks now a pandemic President Biden called the decision Unthinkable but but the justices are saying now is that at some point it's called the major questions doctrine that the uh an executive agency administrative agency can't adopt an entirely new program without Express Congressional uh authorization which is what they said here Congress did not they think did not intend in giving the Secretary of Education the power to do a wholesale uh forgiveness of all this debt given the impact involved U.S senator Bob Menendez questioned the premise of the ruling altogether saying in a statement today's Maga Supreme Court majority decision in Biden vs Nebraska is ludicrous their assertion that President Biden's loan forgiveness program was not in line with Congressional intent under the heroes Act is plain wrong Governor Murphy also expressed his dismay saying I'm disappointed that the U.S Supreme Court today ruled against the Biden administration's efforts to provide student loan debt relief to individuals who are hard hit financially by the covid-19 pandemic today's Court decision takes that money out of the pockets of hard-working people Brown ruja says now is the time for Congress to address the root cause of the problem the cost of higher education in our state and nation and we need to make sure that the the loan system that that exists is not making uh as I said leaving people worse off than when they started the whole point of getting an education is to find stability in life is to find a way uh to work and at a level where you can really raise a family start a small business and participate fully in the economy so there's a lot of work to do work that requires a Congress that actually works together for NJ Spotlight news I'm Joanna Gagis