Page:Department of Education v. Brown.pdf/8

4 On September 27, 2022, Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona, invoking authority under the HEROES Act, directed the issuance of waivers and modifications that would bring about the forgiveness of a substantial amount of student-loan debt. In particular, he purported to effect the discharge of (1) $10,000 of eligible, federally held student-loan debt for any individual borrower with 2020 or 2021 income under $125,000 (or household income under $250,000), and (2) an additional $10,000 (making a total of $20,000) for any such borrower who had ever received a Pell Grant. Pell Grants are Government-funded grants to help defray the cost of postsecondary education; eligibility for these grants turns principally on the income of a student’s family when the student applies to and is enrolled in the relevant educational program (almost always undergraduate study). See §§1070a(b)(2), 1087mm(a), 1091; see also 34 CFR §690.6(c) (2022) (limited eligibility for students in a qualifying “postbaccalaureate program”). Secretary Cardona directed that these actions be taken via a publication in the Federal Register, see App. 262; all agree that he did not observe the generally applicable negotiated-rulemaking or notice-and-comment processes in devising and announcing the Plan.

Notwithstanding the Plan’s scope and expense, not all student-loan borrowers were pleased with it. Myra Brown and Alexander Taylor, plaintiffs in this case, are two such dissatisfied borrowers, albeit for different reasons. Brown’s loans are “commercially held,” id., at 171, Complaint ¶10, meaning that her creditor is an entity other than the Federal Government. The Plan, however, applies only to borrowers whose loans fall into one or more categories of loans “held by the Department.” 87 Fed. Reg. 61513 (2022). Consequently, Brown is not entitled to any loan forgiveness under the Plan.