Advocates of debt cancelation by executive order point out that the Higher Education Act gives the Secretary of Education power to “enforce, pay, compromise, waive, or release any right, title, claim, lien, or demand, however acquired.” This provision would seem to give the Secretary broad power to cancel student debt.

But as financial aid expert Mark Kantrowitz notes, another part of the statute limits the secretary’s authority. He only has the power to cancel obligations owed to the U.S. government “in the performance of, and with respect to, the functions, powers, and duties, vested in him by this part.”

In other words, the Secretary of Education only has the power to forgive student debt when Congress gives it to him.

When President Biden has canceled student debt, it has always been under the authority of a specific program authorized by Congress. Borrower defense is one example: Congress gives the Secretary of Education authority to cancel debt after instances of outright fraud. Congress also allows the secretary to cancel debt when borrowers experience a total and permanent disability. Borrowers who work in public service for ten years can also receive a loan discharge.

In each of these circumstances, Congress created a specific provision for loan cancelation, and required borrowers to meet certain conditions before receiving forgiveness. If the Secretary really had the broad authority to cancel student loans whenever he saw fit, Congress wouldn’t need to create specific programs such as Public Service Loan Forgiveness. The very existence of those programs proves the limits of the executive branch’s authority.....

The debate over whether the President Biden can cancel student debt with the flick of his pen is a distraction. He can’t, but there are better solutions on the table. Congress and the Department of Education should work together to put them into practice.

JERUSALEM — Israel is to offer a fourth dose of a Covid-19 vaccine to people older than 60 or with compromised immune systems, and to health workers, as part of a drive to ramp up the shots and outpace the spread of the omicron variant.

A health ministry expert panel — whose findings have yet to be implemented — recommended Tuesday that those eligible receive the fourth shot at least four months after receiving their third.

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, who has sought to drum up higher Israeli turnout for vaccines, welcomed the panel’s statement as “great news that will help us overcome the omicron wave that is spreading around the world.”

The panel further recommended that the time allotted between second and third shots be reduced to three months from five.

Democratic Party strategist and MSNBC contributor Paola Ramos said Saturday that Republicans are making substantial gains with Hispanic voters because they have become more afraid of socialism than fascism.

Ramos, the former deputy director of Hispanic media for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign, joined The Cross Connection with host Tiffany Cross to talk about Hispanic voter outreach following reporting this week which purported to show that the Hispanic vote is now essentially up for grabs.

A poll from The Wall Street Journal released a week ago showed Hispanic voters who were surveyed said they were almost evenly split in their preference between Democrats and Republicans, meaning the country’s second largest voting bloc is now a swing vote.

Cross asked both Ramos and Northwestern University professor Geraldo Cadava about the potential ramifications of the polling. Ramos initially assigned blame to Cuban-American Sens. Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Ted Cruz (R-TX) for engaging in what she said was a misinformation campaign based on fear-mongering.