House GOP Freedom Caucus members want to block student-loan forgiveness in their new proposal to deal with the debt ceiling

• The House Freedom Caucus unveiled a plan to address the debt ceiling on Friday.
• It includes ending student-debt relief and recouping unspent pandemic relief funds.

A conservative group of lawmakers in the House just released a plan to deal with the debt ceiling through major spending cuts.

And unsurprisingly, blocking student-debt relief is on the list.

On Friday, the House Freedom Caucus, comprised of far-right GOP lawmakers, unveiled a plan entitled "Shrink Washington, Grow America" to raise the debt ceiling "contingent upon" legislation that would end President Joe Biden's student-debt relief, rescind unspent COVID-19 funds, and recoup IRS and climate spending, among other things.

According to the Caucus' fact sheet, they are proposing to cap future spending at the 2022 level for ten years, which will "cut $131 billion in FY2024 and save roughly $3 trillion over the long term by cutting the wasteful, woke, and weaponized federal bureaucracy."

"We are here to ensure that we do not default on our nation's debt," Freedom Caucus member Lauren Boebert said during a Friday press conference.

"And the question that we all face isn't, what was the financially responsible thing to do last year? In the last Congress, we fought like hell to make sure that we weren't spending recklessly here in Washington DC, and unfortunately, we did not have the power of the pen, we did not have the power of the gavel, and we certainly did not have the power of the purse under Democrat rule," Boebert continued. "The question is not, what are we going to do in three years, five years or ten years from now — the question is, what can we do today?"

This is not the first time Republican lawmakers have targeted student-debt relief in a proposal to cut spending. The House GOP Budget Committee included blocking the relief in its list of areas to cut spending in a potential debt ceiling deal, and some have also introduced legislation to block the president from enacting any further debt relief.

Currently, Biden's plan to cancel up to $20,000 in student debt for federal borrowers remains blocked due to two conservative-backed lawsuits that paused the implementation of the plan late last year, and the Supreme Court will issue a decision on the legality of the relief by June. A major student-loan lender also recently filed a lawsuit to end the current student-loan payment pause, which is set to expire 60 days after June 30, or 60 days after the lawsuits on the broad debt relief are resolved, whichever happens first.

The Caucus' plan comes just a day after Biden unveiled his budget proposal for the upcoming year, which GOP lawmakers assailed as "reckless." But, as the president noted in his remarks on Thursday following the release of the budget, Republicans have yet to come together to put forth a concrete plan to raise the debt ceiling before the US defaults on its debt, which could be as soon as July.

"So, I want to make it clear," Biden said. I'm ready to meet with the Speaker anytime — tomorrow, if he has his budget. Lay it down. Tell me what you want to do. I'll show you what I want to do. See what we can agree on."

House Budget Chair Jodey Arrington told Politico that Republicans have "no timeline" for making that happen.

"We are making good progress on our budget resolution," he said.