[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 43 (Wednesday, March 28, 2001)]
[House]
[Page H1275]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




        H.R. 184, THE COLLEGE STUDENT CREDIT CARD PROTECTION ACT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Crenshaw). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Duncan) is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Mr. DUNCAN. Mr. Speaker, a couple of years ago, personal bankruptcies 
reached an all-time record of 1.4 million. Surprising to me, my own 
State of Tennessee led the way.
  Today personal bankruptcies are still running at a rate of over 1 
million a year, and all of this has been occurring at a time when the 
economy has been very strong, at least until the last few months.
  People are drowning in a sea of debt, a sea of red ink, and most of 
this has come from credit card debt, people being seduced by the lure 
of easy credit. Easy credit and large debts have ruined millions of 
lives. Just think how many families are touched when you have 1.4 
million personal bankruptcies. Most of these have been mature adults.
  What many of us are most concerned about, though, is what is 
happening to young people, that is why the gentlewoman from New York 
(Ms. Slaughter) and I have introduced H.R. 184, the College Student 
Credit Card Protection Act, along with approximately 40 cosponsors.
  The ``USA Today'' on February 13th, last month, had an article that 
said, the headline is ``Debt smothers young Americans.''
  Arianna Huffington, the columnist, wrote a column in ``The Washington 
Times'' recently, and she wrote this, how far credit card companies 
have gone was illustrated recently when a mother in Rochester, New York 
filled out an unsolicited application her 3-year-old daughter had 
received. She listed the child's occupation as preschooler. Under 
income, she wrote nothing.
  The toddler was promptly sent a Platinum Visa card with a $5,000 
limit, which Arianna Huffington said, she, no doubt, quickly maxed out 
on Barbies and Pokemon toys.
  In the same column, Arianna Huffington said this, one study found 
that one in four college students carries credit card debt in excess of 
$3,000, and this debt is a gift that keeps on giving long after 
graduation. Sixty-two percent of Americans aged 22 to 33, the most of 
any age group, are saddled with credit-card debt, more than $2,000 
worth on average.
  They also suffer the greatest anxiety over such debt, with nearly 
half saying it concerns them a lot.
  In a ``USA Today'' article, it said this, as a freshman at the 
University of Houston in 1995, Jennifer Massey signed up for a credit 
card and got a free T-shirt. A year later, she had piled up about 
$20,000 in debt on 14 credit cards.
  Paige Hall, 34, returned from her honeymoon in 1997 to find herself 
laid off from her job at a mortgage company in Atlanta. She was out of 
work for 4 months. She and her husband, Kevin, soon were trying to 
figure out how to pay $18,200 in bills from their wedding, honeymoon 
and furnishings for their new home.
  By the time Mistie Medendorp was 29, she had $10,000 in credit card 
debt and $12,000 in student loans.
  Robert Samuelson, the economic columnist for ``The Washington Post'' 
and ``Newsweek'' wrote a column a couple years ago talking about how 
many colleges lured students in very excessive student loan debts, 
telling them not to worry about the big increase in fees that these 
colleges had imposed many times increasing their fees at many times the 
rate of inflation, just saying do not worry, we will give you a student 
loan. So many students have been getting out of college with $25,000 
and $50,000 and $57,000 worth of student loan debts and massive credit 
card debts in addition.
  It is just not right to start young people out or encourage young 
people to go so far into debt just as they are starting out.
  The ``USA Today'' story said this, it said young people are taking 
advantage of all of these credit card offers they are getting. A study 
from Nellie Mae shows that the average credit card debt among 
undergraduate students increased by nearly $1,000 in just the past 2 
years.
  The percentage of undergraduate college students with a credit card 
jumped from 67 percent in 1998 to 78 percent last year, according to 
this, to the Nellie Mae study, and many of them are filling their 
wallets with credit cards.
  Last year, 32 percent said they had four or more cards.
  There was one cartoon I saw in the paper and it showed a young 
college student, a female college student in one panel showing a list 
of 18 credit card hours she was taking, and the next panel she is 
flipping out a thing that says, and she has 18 credit cards to go with 
it.
  ``The Washington Post'' ran a story and said W. Dyer Vest, a senior 
at Virginia Tech owns two T-shirts that he said cost him $2500. The 
shirts were ``free,'' actually as long as Vest signed up for two Visa 
cards at the table displaying in the campus center.
  Credit card in hand, he proceeded to update his wardrobe, outfit his 
girlfriend, eat well at restaurants and give generously well at 
Christmas.
  A year later, he owed $2500 to credit card companies and could not 
afford the minimum payments. He later dropped out of school for a 
semester.
  John Simpson, an administrator at the University of Indiana said 
this, he said ``credit cards are a terrible thing. We lose more 
students to credit card debt than to academic failure.'' Can you 
imagine that? An administrator at the University of Indiana saying that 
we lose more students to credit card debt than to academic failure?
  Robert Manning, a professor of economics at Georgetown University and 
author of the soon-to-be published book Credit Card Nation argues that 
giving children credit cards without limits is like handing them the 
keys to the family car with no restrictions.

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