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Toronto Sun
23-05-2025
- Politics
- Toronto Sun
Trump signs executive orders to boost nuclear power, speed up approvals
Published May 23, 2025 • 4 minute read President Donald Trump signs executive orders in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, on May 23, 2025. Photo by MANDEL NGAN / AFP via Getty Images WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump signed executive orders Friday intended to quadruple domestic production of nuclear power within the next 25 years, a goal experts say the United States is highly unlikely to reach. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Don't have an account? Create Account To speed up the development of nuclear power, the orders grant the U.S. energy secretary authority to approve advanced reactor designs and projects, taking authority away from the independent safety agency that has regulated the U.S. nuclear industry for five decades. The order comes as demand for electricity surges amid a boom in energy-hungry data centers and artificial intelligence. Tech companies, venture capitalists, states and others are competing for electricity and straining the nation's electric grid. 'We've got enough electricity to win the AI arms race with China,' Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said. 'What we do in the next five years related to electricity is going to determine the next 50' years in the industry. Your noon-hour look at what's happening in Toronto and beyond. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Please try again This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Still, it's unlikely the U.S. could quadruple its nuclear production in the timeframe the White House specified. The United States lacks any next-generation reactors operating commercially and only two new large reactors have been built from scratch in nearly 50 years. Those two reactors, at a nuclear plant in Georgia, were completed years late and at least $17 billion over budget. Trump is enthusiastic At the Oval Office signing, Trump, surrounded by industry executives, called nuclear a 'hot industry,' adding, 'It's time for nuclear, and we're going to do it very big.' Burgum and other speakers said the industry has stagnated and has been choked by overregulation. 'Mark this day on your calendar. This is going to turn the clock back on over 50 years of overregulation of an industry,' said Burgum, who chairs Trump's newly formed Energy Dominance Council. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. The orders would reorganize the independent Nuclear Regulatory Commission to ensure quicker reviews of nuclear projects, including an 18-month deadline for the NRC to act on industry applications. The measures also create a pilot program intended to place three new experimental reactors online by July 4, 2026 — 13 months from now — and invoke the Defense Production Act to allow emergency measures to ensure the U.S. has the reactor fuel needed for a modernized nuclear energy sector. RECOMMENDED VIDEO The administration is focused on boosting nuclear as 'affordable, reliable, safe and secure power,' said Michael Kratsios, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. The executive orders send a signal that 'America will build again,' Kratsios said. Energy Secretary Chris Wright echoed that sentiment on social media, posting that more reliable, secure and affordable energy sources — like geothermal, nuclear and natural gas — are the key to remaining the world's energy powerhouse. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Trump has signed a spate of executive orders promoting oil, gas and coal that warm the planet when burned to produce electricity. Nuclear reactors generate electricity without emitting greenhouse gases. Trump said reactors are safe and clean, but did not mention climate benefits. The order to reorganize the NRC will include significant staff reductions but is not intended to fire NRC commissioners who lead the agency. David Wright, a former South Carolina elected official and utility commissioner, chairs the five-member panel. His term ends June 30, and it is unclear if he will be reappointed. Critics have trepidations Critics say the White House moves could compromise safety and violate legal frameworks such as the Atomic Energy Act. Compromising the independence of the NRC or encouraging it to be circumvented entirely could weaken the agency and make regulation less effective, said Edwin Lyman, director of nuclear power safety at the Union of Concerned Scientists. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. 'Simply put, the U.S. nuclear industry will fail if safety is not made a priority,' he said. A number of countries are speeding up efforts to license and build a new generation of smaller nuclear reactors to meet a surging demand for electricity and supply it carbon-free. Last year, Congress passed legislation that former President Joe Biden signed to modernize the licensing of new reactor technologies so they can be built faster. This month, the power company in Ontario, Canada, began building the first of four small nuclear reactors. Valar Atomics is a nuclear reactor developer in California. Founder and CEO Isaiah Taylor said nuclear development and innovation in the United States has been slowed by too much red tape, while Russia and China are speeding ahead. He said he's most excited about the mandate for the Energy Department to speed up the pace of innovation. The NRC is currently reviewing applications from companies and a utility that want to build small nuclear reactors to begin providing power in the early 2030s. Currently, the NRC expects its reviews to take three years or less. Radiant Nuclear is a clean energy startup based in El Segundo, California, that is building a nuclear microreactor. Chief Operating Officer Tori Shivanandan said the administration's support for the advanced nuclear industry will help ensure its success, and the executive orders mark a 'watershed moment' for nuclear power. Toronto Maple Leafs Music Toronto Maple Leafs Celebrity Music
Toronto Sun
27-04-2025
- Politics
- Toronto Sun
Trump says Columbus Day will now just be Columbus Day
Published Apr 27, 2025 • 2 minute read U.S. President Donald Trump walks to speak to reporters before boarding Air Force One upon departure at Morristown Municipal Airport in Morristown, N.J. on April 27, 2025. Photo by MANDEL NGAN / AFP via Getty Images President Donald Trump made clear Sunday that he would not follow his predecessor's practice of recognizing Indigenous Peoples Day alongside Columbus Day in October, accusing Democrats of denigrating the explorer's legacy as he pressed his campaign to restore what he argues are traditional American icons. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Don't have an account? Create Account Democrat Joe Biden was the first president to mark Indigenous Peoples Day, issuing a proclamation in 2021 that celebrated 'the invaluable contributions and resilience of Indigenous peoples' and recognize 'their inherent sovereignty.' The proclamation noted that America 'was conceived on a promise of equality and opportunity for all people' but that promise 'we have never fully lived up to. That is especially true when it comes to upholding the rights and dignity of the Indigenous people who were here long before colonization of the Americas began.' Trump on Sunday used a social media post to declare, 'I'm bringing Columbus Day back from the ashes.' He said on his Truth Social site that 'the Democrats did everything possible to destroy Christopher Columbus, his reputation, and all of the Italians that love him so much.' Your noon-hour look at what's happening in Toronto and beyond. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Please try again This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. The federal holiday, the second Monday in October, was still known as Columbus Day during Biden's term, but also as Indigenous Peoples Day. That's been a longtime goal of activists who wanted to shift the focus from commemorating Columbus' navigation to the Americas to his and his successors' exploitation of the indigenous people he encountered there. Though Trump has long objected to telling the country's history through a lens of diversity and oppression, the holiday he seeks to restore to its primacy was added to the calendar as a nod to the country's growing diversity. Columbus' expeditions never touched the North American continent, let alone any land that is now part of the United States. But the native of Genoa became increasingly commemorated in the United States as Italian immigrants flocked to the country and politicians sought to win their support. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Indeed, it was the lynching of 11 Italian-American immigrants in New Orleans in 1891 that led to the first Columbus Day celebration in the United States, led the following year by President Benjamin Harrison. President Franklin D. Roosevelt designated Columbus Day as a national holiday in 1934. Trump has long complained about Democrats tearing down statues of Columbus, a complaint he made again in Sunday's post. In 2017, he spoke out against a review of the 76-foot-tall statue of the explorer in New York's Columbus Circle that then-Mayor Bill de Blasio had ordered. It remains in place today, but other statues have been defaced or torn down. In 2020, Trump's administration paid to restore a Columbus statue in Baltimore that was dumped in the harbor during protests against the police murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Canada Toronto Blue Jays Federal Elections Federal Elections Sports
Forbes
23-04-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Getting U.S. Citizenship For Investor Immigrants: Gold Card Vs. EB-5
US President Donald Trump holds the $5 million dollar Gold Card as he speaks to reporters while in ... More flight on board Air Force One, en route to Miami, Florida on April 3, 2025. (Photo by MANDEL NGAN / AFP) (Photo by MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images) As Washington wrestles with immigration reform and debt reduction, Trump's proposed Gold Card has caught the attention of global elites and America's investor immigration community. The idea is that the Gold Card would offer a direct pathway to U.S. citizenship for vetted high-net-worth 'world-class global citizens.' The special inducement is that investors would be relieved of U.S. taxation on their foreign income and no job creation would be required. Instead investors would simply make a one-time non-refundable payment of $5 million to the federal government. That's it! The Gold Card seeks to compete with America's long-established EB-5 visa program, which since 1990 has allowed foreign nationals to invest in job-creating U.S. enterprises in exchange for lawful permanent residence and also, eventually, citizenship. But the Gold Card's streamlined appeal—fewer strings, faster status, and significant tax advantages—poses both a challenge to the EB-5 program and a legislative minefield in its own right. While both programs lead to the same destination—U.S. citizenship—the roads diverge sharply. Trump's Gold Card would require no job creation, no economic modeling, and no indirect employment calculations. It would offer immediate permanent residence for a flat $5 million contribution to the U.S. government—essentially a pay-to-stay model. If the process is structured like other immigrant visas, Gold Card holders would become eligible to apply for citizenship after five years of continuous residence. Rumors have it that more than 1,000 Gold Cards are already 'pre-sold,' signaling strong global demand for a simple route to U.S. citizenship and a passport among the ultra-wealthy. By contrast, the EB-5 program requires a minimum investment of $800,000 (or $1,050,000 in non-targeted employment areas) in projects that create at least 10 jobs. Long processing times plagued the program with applicants waiting for sometimes even a decade to go through the entire process to permanent resident status. Indeed, many considered the program to be on life support due to these long processing delays until the Reform and Integrity Act (RIA) was passed in 2022. The RIA introduced set aside EB5 rural, infrastructure and high unemployment projects along with concurrent adjustment of status processing for investors who could apply from inside the United States. These reforms opened the doors for investor immigrants who could then employ 'premium processing' to speed up approvals and, for those inside the U.S., apply for employment and travel authorizations as part of their adjustment of status applications until their green cards were approved. These reforms resurrected interest in the EB5 program which remains open for investors until October 2025 when processing backlogs are expected to appear again. As for citizenship, once applicants qualify for a green card they can begin counting down the five years needed towards apply for U.S. naturalization and to obtain a U.S. passport. The proposed tax treatment under the Gold Card may be its most controversial feature. According to Trump's team, Gold Card recipients would be exempt from paying U.S. taxes on foreign-sourced income—income earned in Europe, Asia, or elsewhere outside the United States. They would only be taxed on U.S. earnings, which marks a significant departure from America's current worldwide taxation model for green card holders and citizens. But such preferential treatment would almost certainly require an act of Congress to amend the Internal Revenue Code. Moreover, it could face constitutional scrutiny under the Fourteenth Amendment's equal protection principles. It seems pretty obvious that if you grant tax exemptions to one class of green card holders based purely on wealth or visa type, and not others who are similarly situated, you invite legal challenges. Indeed, the U.S. tax system currently draws no distinction between categories of lawful permanent residents. Creating a carve-out for Gold Card holders would raise administrative, legal, and political hurdles—especially in a time of fiscal tightening and rising populist backlash. The distinction is even harder to justify at the citizenship stage, where all naturalized Americans must be treated equally under federal law. Beyond tax policy, the mechanics of implementing a Gold Card program would require detailed legislative action. Current U.S. immigration law sets annual numerical limits on employment-based immigrant visas, including the EB-5. Family members of EB-5 investors are counted against the cap, significantly limiting how many principal applicants can be approved each year. Unless Congress authorizes a new visa category or adjusts quotas, Gold Card applicants could find themselves competing with EB-5 investors for a shrinking pool of green cards. Processing times, country caps, and adjudication standards would all need to be codified, either through legislation or agency rule-making. Ali Jahanjiri, CEO and Publisher of EB5 Investor Magazine, welcomes discussion of the Gold Card to ... More join the EB5 investor program. Ali Jahangiri, CEO and publisher of EB5 Investors Magazine, believes that despite these complications, there's room for both programs. 'EB-5 builds America,' he said. 'The Gold Card funds America. These programs are different in purpose and can co-exist.' He added that the EB-5 has proven its worth over three decades, generating $55 billion in foreign investment and supporting iconic projects like the Brightline high-speed rail in Miami and the Hudson Yards development in New York. Proponents argue that the Gold Card could deliver significant fiscal benefits. A $5 million fee per applicant could raise tens of billions in revenue—enough to help pay down the national debt, enhance border security, or fund disaster relief efforts through FEMA. With almost 4 million individuals globally holding net assets over $5 million, even a modest adoption rate could bring in major capital. Critics, however, warn that replacing EB-5 with a revenue-driven model prioritizes government funding over economic development and job creation. The EB-5 was built to foster employment, rebuild communities, and spark infrastructure in rural or underserved areas. That mission risks being lost if the Gold Card becomes the dominant path. Additionally, the EB-5 program enjoys legal durability. Under the 2022 EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act (RIA), petitions filed under current regulations must continue to be processed—even if the program is not reauthorized in 2027. This provides investors a level of certainty that may not exist with the as-yet unlegislated Gold Card. Meanwhile, the EB-5 program is mired in its own legal turmoil. A pending federal court case challenges the government's interpretation of the required 'sustainment period'—how long EB-5 funds must remain invested. Industry stakeholders argue that the USCIS's current two-year requirement deviates from both the law and investor expectations, potentially jeopardizing long-term projects. Such uncertainties add weight to the appeal of a 'cleaner' option like the Gold Card. But attorneys warn that the legal landscape for the Gold Card will be anything but clean if key provisions are rushed through executive action without legislative clarity. The future of U.S. investor immigration may rest on how Congress responds to these competing visions. Will lawmakers preserve and refine the EB-5, or pivot toward a higher-stakes, revenue-centric Gold Card model? Or will both programs be allowed to co-exist, each serving a different class of investor? What is clear is that the Gold Card has injected new energy—and new controversy—into an often-overlooked part of U.S. immigration policy. It reflects a shift in priorities from job creation to fiscal recovery, from complex regulatory schemes to transactional simplicity. But simplicity, in law and politics, especially when it comes to citizenship is rarely simple.
Forbes
15-04-2025
- Business
- Forbes
When Buy-And-Hold Becomes A Retirement-Sapping Taxable Event
TOPSHOT - The dome of the US Capitol is seen at dusk in Washington, DC on November 13, 2023. (Photo ... More by Mandel NGAN / AFP) (Photo by MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images) While there's no evidence that Albert Einstein uttered the quip long associated with him about compound returns as the '8th Wonder of the World,' it's not unreasonable to imagine the genius wit saying something just like that. When it comes to savings, compounding has wondrous qualities that become magical over time. That's why the patient investor can combine prudence with time to become a well-to-do retiree. As investor Barry Ritholtz pointed out in his recently released book How Not To Invest, compounding easily papers over a multitude of investment errors, including a propensity to buy at the top of every market. What Ritholtz found via empirical study is that over long stretches of time, the returns enjoyed by the investor prone to buy just ahead of market declines and corrections does almost as well as the proverbial unicorn who routinely buys at market lows. Such is the genius of buying and holding through market downs and ups. These truths rate prominent thought in consideration of how capital gains achieved by mutual funds are presently taxed. While the funds themselves don't pay taxes on gains realized through sales, the individual investors in their funds do. That's the why behind the title of this opinion piece. Even when mutual fund investors intend to hold their shares in the fund for the long-term, they pay annual capital gains taxes as though they're actively trading. Explained more plainly, gains realized by the fund managers are paid for in taxes by the smaller, frequently retail investors in the fund. Stop and think about this. On its face, the tax shifting that this enables exists as a penalty placed on small investors who wisely outsource their stock-picking to others. Outsourcing is crucial precisely because investing is best left to the experts. To invest for oneself is like cutting one's own hair. At the same time, what are investors supposed to do when doing the right thing comes at a cost? Compounding once again reveals magical qualities when matched with time, but if the returns are going to be compromised by taxable event-style trading that is paid for by the retail investor, then the incentive is to still buy and hold, albeit in cutting one's own hair fashion. Thankfully there's a potential fix working its way through Congress. Reps. Beth Van Duyne (R-TX) and Terri Sewell (D-AL) have introduced the Generating Retirement Ownership Through Long-Term Holding (GROWTH) Act to correct what saps the genius of patient, buy-and-hold retirement saving. The GROWTH Act will spare buy-and-hold mutual fund investors annual taxes run up by fund managers, and will instead defer the taxation on realized gains to when the retail investor ultimately sells the shares in the fund. So, while there shouldn't be taxation of any kind on capital gains, the GROWTH Act at the very least corrects a retirement-sapping injustice that neuters the genius of compounding through annual taxation gains realized by fund managers, as opposed to fund shareholders. Enormous effort goes into planning for and saving for retirement. What a mistake to penalize prudence with a tax levied on retirement savers acting with extraordinary prudence. Let's erase a very real bug in the tax code that so substantially chips away at the genius of patient, long-term retirement saving.
Forbes
04-04-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Trump And GOP Target Student Loan Forgiveness, Plunging Programs Into Uncertainty
US President Donald Trump speaks to reporters while in flight on board Air Force One. (Photo by ... More MANDEL NGAN / AFP) (Photo by MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images) President Donald Trump and Republican officials have made clear in recent months that they want roll back student loan forgiveness, including longstanding programs that historically have had bipartisan support. Programs are being targeted on multiple fronts through executive actions, legal challenges, and legislation. The net result is a heightened degree of uncertainty for millions of student loan borrowers. Many loan forgiveness programs require years of payments before someone can qualify for student debt relief, and borrowers often make key personal and financial decisions premised on the promise of eventual loan forgiveness. But the landscape for borrowers is more volatile than ever, making it exceedingly challenging to plan for the future. Here's where things currently stand on efforts to gut federal student loan forgiveness programs, and what borrowers should know. Student loan forgiveness remains blocked under the SAVE plan, an income-driven repayment program launched by the Biden administration in 2023. SAVE, like all other IDR plans, provides for loan forgiveness after 20 or 25 years in repayment. But the plan can allow for faster loan forgiveness for certain borrowers who initially took out relatively small student loan amounts. Months after the SAVE plan went live, a group of Republican-led states filed a legal challenge last spring to halt the program. In August of last year, the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals issued a preliminary injunction that prevents the Department of Education from implementing the SAVE plan while the lawsuit proceeds. As a result, more than eight millions borrowers were forced into a forbearance which halted payments, interest, and all progress toward student loan forgiveness. In February, the 8th Circuit issued a new ruling that reaffirmed and expanded the SAVE plan injunction, keeping the program stuck in limbo. The court all but said that the program is likely to ultimately get struck down, although that has not happened yet. Meanwhile, Republican lawmakers in Congress are working on legislation to expand and make permanent massive tax cuts. To offset the associated costs, GOP leaders want to scrap several student loan forgiveness programs, including the SAVE plan in its entirety. While the SAVE plan technically still exists, it appears nearly certain that one way or another, the program will end. The good news for borrowers is that SAVE is not the only income-driven repayment option. There's also Income-Contingent Repayment, Income-Based Repayment, and Pay As You Earn; these plans are often referred to by their acronyms (ICR, IBR, and PAYE, respectively). These plans can also provide affordable payments and eventual student loan forgiveness, although their terms are not as generous as the SAVE plan. But these other income-driven repayment options are also mired in turmoil. As a result of the 8th Circuit's recent rulings, which calls into question not only the SAVE plan but the underlying statute that authorized the creation of several distinct IDR plans, student loan forgiveness at the end of the 20- or 25-year repayment term is currently blocked for the ICR and PAYE plans. Borrowers can still repay their student loans under these plans, but if they reach the threshold for loan forgiveness, they cannot receive a discharge at this time. Instead, these borrowers are supposed to be put into a forbearance while the legal challenge continues, according to the Department of Education. Meanwhile, the Department of Education announced this week that it intends on rewriting the rules for the ICR and PAYE plans – possibly to eliminate any possibility of student loan forgiveness under these programs. Student loan forgiveness through the IBR plan remains available, as IBR was created separately by Congress and the underlying statute is not being challenged. However, all IDR plans – including IBR – are effectively still blocked by the Trump administration. In response to the 8th Circuit's February court order, the Department of Education took down the IDR application and prevented borrowers from applying to any of the four plans. After a national labor union and student loan borrower advocacy group filed a legal challenge against the Trump administration arguing that the shutdown was unlawful, the department reopened IDR applications for ICR, PAYE, and IBR. However, processing still remains paused. A key court hearing is scheduled for later this month to determine if the Trump administration should be ordered to resume processing, or if borrowers should be entitled to relief (such as student loan forgiveness credit associated with a forced forbearance). If there's any other student loan forgiveness program that is being targeted on the same scale as the SAVE plan, it's Public Service Loan Forgiveness. PSLF offers loan forgiveness to borrowers who commit to working in traditionally lower-paying roles in the nonprofit or government sectors for at least 10 years while meeting other key program requirements. Once a bipartisan program signed into law by President George W. Bush, PSLF has now become a major target of Republican lawmakers and the Trump administration. Even without being directly targeted, borrowers on track for PSLF have been impacted by the SAVE plan litigation and subsequent shutdown of the income-driven repayment system. Borrowers who were thrown into a forbearance because they were in the SAVE plan cannot make ongoing progress toward student loan forgiveness through PSLF, and have been unable to change to a different repayment plan. And those who want to enroll in PSLF may not be able to do so, as typically an income-driven repayment plan is a required component for PSLF borrowers pursuing student loan forgiveness. But PSLF is also being directly targeted. In March, President Trump issued an executive order to limit eligibility for student loan forgiveness based on an organization's activities. The Trump administration has argued that the changes are necessary so that organizations engaging in 'illegal' actions cannot benefit from PSLF. Critics, however, say that the definition of 'illegal' is so broad and vague that it could allow the Department of Education to to block loan forgiveness under PSLF for any organization that the administration disagrees with. The executive order has so far not gone into full effect, as it directs the department to draft regulations implementing it – a process that can take well over a year. But this week, the Department of Education initiated a rulemaking process to do just that. Many observers expect legal challenges, as only Congress can fundamentally change the PSLF program. GOP leaders in Congress are, however, also considering potential changes to PSLF. Some suggestions include limiting student loan forgiveness under the program based on a borrower's income, or capping loan forgiveness at a certain amount to prevent higher-income earners who take on large amounts of student debt – such as doctors and attorneys – from benefiting. Typically, when Congress restricts longstanding benefits through legislation, the changes would only apply to new loans going forward, effectively grandfathering in current borrowers. But it remains to be seen what Congress will do here, as no draft legislation has yet been released. Republican lawmakers in Congress are also considering including other changes to student loan forgiveness programs in its upcoming bill to extend tax cuts. These include repealing Biden-era regulations that have made it easier for borrowers to qualify for debt relief under Borrower Defense to Repayment and Closed School Discharges, two programs that can cancel the federal student debt for borrowers who were harmed by their school. Lawmakers may also try to repeal all existing income-driven repayment plans and replace those plans with a new program that does away with time-based student loan forgiveness, potentially trapping borrowers in debt for decades. GOP congressional leaders are also considering changes to the tax code that could indirectly impact student loan forgiveness programs, but could still have profound consequences for borrowers. Proposals include changing the tax-exempt status of nonprofit hospitals, which could eliminate PSLF eligibility for millions of healthcare workers, and not extending federal tax relief on certain federal student loan forgiveness programs.
