Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/22pdf/22-506_nmip.pdf
Page Number: 63.0

16 

BIDEN v. NEBRASKA 

KAGAN, J., dissenting 

eliminate  a  regulatory  requirement  or  condition.    Black’s 
Law Dictionary 1894 (11th ed. 2019).  To “modify” means 
“[t]o  make  somewhat  different”  or  “to  reduce  in  degree  or 
extent”—so here, to lessen rather than eliminate such a re-
quirement.  Id., at 1203.  Then put the words together, as
they appear in the statute: To “waive or modify” a require-
ment means to lessen its effect, from the slightest adjust-
ment  up  to  eliminating  it  altogether.    Of  course,  making 
such  changes  may  leave  gaps  to  fill.  So  the  statute  says
what is anyway obvious: that the Secretary’s waiver/modi-
fication power includes the ability to specify “the terms and
conditions to be applied in lieu of such [modified or waived] 
statutory  and  regulatory  provisions.”    §1098bb(b)(2).    Fi-
nally, attach the “waive or modify” power to all the provi-
sions  relating  to  loan  cancellation:  The  Secretary  may
amend, all the way up to discarding, those provisions and 
fill the holes that action creates with new terms designed to 
counteract an emergency’s effects on borrowers. 

Before  reviewing  how  that  statutory  scheme  operated
here, consider how it might work for a hypothetical emer-
gency  that  the  enacting  Congress  had  in  the  front  of  its 
mind.  As noted above, a precursor to the HEROES Act was
a  statute  authorizing  the  Secretary  to  assist  student-loan
borrowers affected by September 11.  See supra, at 14.  The 
HEROES Act, as Congress designed it, would give him the
identical power to address similar terrorist attacks in the 
future.  So  imagine  the  horrific.    A  terrorist  organization 
sets off a dirty bomb in Chicago.  Beyond causing deaths,
the  incident  leads  millions  of  residents  (including  many 
with student loans) to flee the city to escape the radiation. 
They must find new housing, probably new jobs.  And still 
their  student-loan  bills  are  coming  due  every  month.    To 
prevent  widespread  loan  delinquencies  and  defaults,  the 
Secretary  wants  to  discharge  $10,000  for  the  class  of  af-
fected borrowers.  Is that legal?  Of course it is; it is exactly 
what  Congress  provided  for.    The  statutory  preconditions