[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 84 (Monday, June 26, 2006)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1273-E1274]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             HIGHER EDUCATION REAUTHORIZATION ACT EXTENSION

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                          HON. BETTY McCOLLUM

                              of minnesota

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, June 21, 2006

  Ms. McCOLLUM of Minnesota. Mr. Speaker, today the House will 
temporarily extend for 3 months the Higher Education Act. I rise today 
to support this extension and to express my concern for the dangerous 
direction in which this Congress has taken our country's college 
students and our Nation's valued higher education system.
  The Republican leadership has failed college students and their 
families by pushing through a reauthorization bill that does nothing to 
make college more affordable as tuition continues to increase at a rate 
faster than inflation. Instead of helping students and families deal 
with the rising price to attend college, Republicans also passed 
legislation cutting $12 billion from the student loan program--the 
largest cut in the history of federal student financial aid.
  In addition to cutting Federal aid, the Republican leadership has 
made loans more expensive. And the bad news keeps coming. Recent 
reports confirm what struggling families already know--students and 
families are going deeper and deeper into debt to finance a college 
education. The Project on Student Loan Debt, a non-profit advocacy 
group, has found that the percentage of graduate seniors who have debt 
loads of $40,000 or more have increased from 1.3 percent to 8 percent 
between 1993 and 2004.
  Another recent report done by the Public Interest Research Group's 
Higher Education Project shows that 25 percent of public school 
graduates and 38 percent of private school graduates who become new 
teachers can't afford to pay their student debt on their salaries. 
Social workers in the same situation number even more--37 percent of 
public and 55 percent of private school graduates can't afford their 
student loan payments. More and more students are graduating with 
student loan debt numbers in the six figures. This is unmanageable and 
unfair and Congress can be a better partner in making the possibility 
of going to college more attainable--especially for middle- and low-
income students.
  Another troubling statistic has emerged--during the 2004-2005 school 
year--student borrowing of private loans increased by 30 percent. 
Private student loans are often used to bridge the gap between 
traditional financial aid and the cost of tuition--but they are more 
costly to students and families. In addition to being costlier, these 
private loans do not share some of the features of Federal student 
loans that are backed by the government, including deferment of 
payments and the rates at which interest may accrue.
  What's more, starting July 1, Federal student loans will carry a 
higher fixed interest rate of 6.8 percent, an increase from the current 
5.3 percent. That's why I support Democratic plans to provide 
substantive increases to the Pell Grant and to cut the student loan 
interest rates in half. As a co-sponsor of the Reverse the Raid on 
Student Aid Act, I believe that Congress can be a better partner for 
those students and their families who--as we debate these very issues 
that affect them--are sitting at kitchen tables across the country 
trying to figure out how to piece together the finances to attend 
college this fall.
  There is some good news in this extension. The good news is that the 
current law that will be extended today is better than the Republican 
bill to reauthorize the Higher Education Act, H.R. 609, which does 
nothing to make college more affordable for students--the expressed 
purpose of the Higher Education Act. It makes no sense to make college 
more expensive by amending a law that exists to promote access to a 
college education.
  College students should not be forced to bear the weight of President 
Bush's and this Republican Congress's irresponsible fiscal policies 
that have slashed student aid in order to pay for tax cuts that only 
benefit one percent of the nation's wealthiest. As I've stated in 
earlier extensions--today, this temporary extension is necessary, but I 
will continue to work to ensure that students will not be forced to pay 
for this enormous deficit now through financial aid cuts--or in the 
future as taxpayers.

[[Page E1274]]



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