(The Hill) — A Texas federal judge has overturned a rule from the Biden administration that allowed for medical debt to be erased from credit histories, as revealed in court documents.
U.S. District Judge Sean Jordan, appointed by President Donald Trump in 2019, determined that the earlier administration’s rule exceeded the legal powers of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. This rule was finalized by the CFPB, an independent agency, in January, just as former President Joe Biden was preparing to step down from office.
The Biden administration had projected that this measure would eliminate nearly $50 billion of medical debt from the credit reports of about 15 million Americans.
In his latest decision Friday, Jordan argued that the Fair Credit Reporting Act, which was amended in 2003, does not permit the CFPB to remove medical debt from reports. However, per the filing, the bureau can “permit” or encourage creditors to use other categories of information.
Since returning to office later that month, Trump has sought to weed out what his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) panel calls waste, fraud and abuse within the federal government. The embattled consumer protection agency found itself in the president’s crosshairs early on and was subject to mass layoffs.
In March, a federal judge blocked the Trump administration from effectively dismantling CFPB.
While in office, former Vice President Kamala Harris was also a supporter of erasing medical debt, and it became part of her messaging during the 2024 presidential election. When laying out her proposed economic agenda, she also vowed to take Biden’s health care accomplishments even further — including fully erasing the debt.
“No one should be denied economic opportunity because they got sick or experienced a medical emergency,” Harris said in January, adding later, “We also reduced the burden of medical debt by increasing pathways to forgiveness and cracking down on predatory debt collection tactics.”
Dan Smith, head of the Consumer Data Industry Association, welcomed the decision, saying canceling the rule was a move in the right direction.
“This is the right outcome for protecting the integrity of the system,” Smith wrote in a statement, according to Reuters.
Jordan’s decision comes almost a week after Trump signed the massive spending and tax bill that includes sweeping cuts to Medicaid. New work requirements included in the law could strip millions of their coverage.
