ABC's Jonathan Karl pressed Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna, Calif., on The Supreme Court's decision to strike down President Biden's plan to cancel roughly $430 billion of federal student loan balances during "This Week" on Sunday.
Karl asked Khanna about Nancy Pelosi's position on student loan forgiveness from two years ago.
"The argument the court is making is the heroes act does not give the president authority to rewrite student loans. In fact, this was a position essentially that was taken by Nancy Pelosi. I know you’ve called for the president to forgive $50,000 in student debt through executive action. Take a look at what Nancy Pelosi had to say about that just two years ago," Karl said, before playing the video of Pelosi.
Pelosi said the president doesn't have the power to forgive student loan debt.
"People think that the president of the United States has the power for debt forgiveness. He does not. He can postpone. He can delay, but he does not have that power. That would – that has to be an act of Congress," she said in the video.
Karl noted that the Supreme Court "quoted" her words.
Khanna said Pelosi took that position before Biden had asked for a legal analysis of the HEROES Act.
"When you look at the analysis of the heroes act, it says specifically that the president and the secretary have the authority to cancel or amend – to waive or amend the student loans," he said. "There was an analysis done that the secretary has that authority. He has to over a certain amount, get approval of the attorney general, and the speaker said after she looked at that legal analysis, it was clear under the HEROES Act the administration did have that authority."
"We can have an argument that the HEROES Act passed in 2003 in the wake of shortly after 9/11, it was way too broad of giving that kind of authority to the president and the secretary. I don’t believe that’s the case. That’s a legitimate argument. The place to make that argument is in the United States Congress. It’s not for unelected justices to override what the court has passed. And that's what this court is doing. It’s very dangerous. They are basically reinterpreting congressional statute to fit their ideological preconceptions," he continued.
Khanna also expressed his support for a "total pause" on student loan payments.
"You have all of these students who have relied on a promise that they are going to have their student loans forgiven. I had to take out $150,000 of student loans. There were times in my life where I had to have a forbearance. I’m fortunate now to be able to pay them off, but this is a real hardship, and when people are out there saying that they are relying on this, we should at least pause it until that is forgiven, especially when we have a Supreme Court who in my view usurped the authority of Congress," he said.
In the 6-3 decision, the Supreme Court held that federal law does not allow the secretary of education to cancel more than $430 billion in student loan debt.
"The Secretary’s plan canceled roughly $430 billion of federal student loan balances, completely erasing the debts of 20 million borrowers and lowering the median amount owed by the other 23 million from $29,400 to $13,600," Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the majority. "Six states sued, arguing that the HEROES Act does not authorize the loan cancellation plan. We agree."
