Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/22pdf/22-506_nmip.pdf
Page Number: 26

Cite as:  600 U. S. ____ (2023) 

21 

Opinion of the Court 

Secretary would enjoy virtually unlimited power to rewrite 
the Education Act.  This would “effec[t] a ‘fundamental re-
vision of the statute, changing it from [one sort of] scheme
of . . . regulation’ into an entirely different kind,” West Vir-
ginia, 597 U. S., at ___ (slip op., at 24) (quoting MCI, 512 
U. S., at 231)—one in which the Secretary may unilaterally 
define  every  aspect  of  federal  student  financial  aid,  pro-
vided  he  determines  that  recipients  have  “suffered  direct 
economic hardship as a direct result of a . . . national emer-
gency.”  20 U. S. C. §1098ee(2)(D). 

The  “ ‘economic  and  political  significance’ ”  of  the  Secre-
tary’s action is staggering by any measure.  West Virginia, 
597 U. S., at ___ (slip op., at 17) (quoting Brown & William-
son, 529 U. S., at 160).  Practically every student borrower
benefits, regardless of  circumstances.  A budget model is-
sued by the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylva-
nia  estimates  that  the  program  will  cost  taxpayers  “be-
tween $469 billion and $519 billion,” depending on the total
number of borrowers ultimately covered.  App. 108.  That is 
ten times the “economic impact” that we found significant
in concluding that an eviction moratorium implemented by
the  Centers  for  Disease  Control  and  Prevention  triggered 
analysis  under  the  major  questions  doctrine.  Alabama 
Assn., 594 U. S., at ___ (slip op., at 6).  It amounts to nearly 
one-third of the Government’s $1.7 trillion in annual discre-
tionary  spending.  Congressional  Budget  Office,  The  Fed-
eral Budget in Fiscal Year 2022.  There is no serious dispute 
that the Secretary claims the authority to exercise control
over “a significant portion of the American economy.”  Util-
ity Air Regulatory Group v. EPA, 573 U. S. 302, 324 (2014) 
(quoting Brown & Williamson, 529 U. S., at 159). 

The dissent is correct that this is a case about one branch 
of  government  arrogating  to  itself  power  belonging  to  an-
other.  But it is the Executive seizing the power of the Leg-
islature.  The  Secretary’s  assertion  of  administrative  au-
thority has “conveniently enabled [him] to enact a program”