[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 85 (Tuesday, June 27, 2006)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6552-S6553]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     HIGHER EDUCATION ACT EXTENSION

  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, most Members of Congress come to this life 
experience with previous life experiences. Many times, they are 
motivated by something that they have lived through or witnessed. I 
have seen it time and time again, whether we are talking about a 
commitment to help certain people, such as the disabled, or to cure a 
certain disease, whether it is mental illness or cancer or heart 
disease; you find that many of our colleagues in the Senate and the 
House really rise to the occasion and show great devotion and 
commitment to these issues because they have seen them, they understand 
them.
  Well, we all come here with many life experiences. The one that I had 
as a young man was repeated many times over. After growing up in East 
St. Louis, IL, and going for a year to a good university, St. Louis 
University, I decided I had to go out of my home, go away to school. 
That is what college was all about. I went home to my mom who was a 
widow at the time, and told her of my plan.
  She said: How could you afford it?
  I said: Don't worry, I have it all under control.
  Well, Mr. President, I was making it up. I had no idea how I was 
going to pay for it. I went to school here in Washington, at Georgetown 
University, and worked hard during the school year and the summer and 
saved up money to help pay expenses, and I also took out student loans.
  Were it not for the National Defense Education Act, I could never 
have finished college and law school. I didn't have any wealth, my 
family didn't either, so I had to borrow the money. It was early in the 
1960s and this program had just gotten started. There were kids all 
over America like myself who used those student loans to make it 
through college and professional school. I remember my wife and I were 
married when I was still in law school, and when I graduated they 
accumulated all of the student loans that I had borrowed in my entire 
college career and sent me this ominous letter to tell me that a year 
after graduation I had to start paying it back, one-tenth of all those 
loans plus 3 percent every year, without fail. I opened that envelope 
with great trepidation and saw that total amount and didn't know how I 
could possibly do it. I told my new wife, holding our new baby, that we 
faced a student loan debt that needed to be paid off over 10 years, and 
that debt was $6,500.
  Every time I tell that story to college students now, they break out 
laughing at hearing $6,500. Now many of them have to borrow that for a 
semester. Many years ago, it seemed like a daunting task. Luckily, we 
met the challenge and paid off the loan. I have been watching student 
loans ever since because I understand for many students today they are 
still the ticket to an education.
  Last Friday, the Higher Education Act was extended for the fourth 
time since last year.
  I hope that by extending it 3 more months we will be able to work on 
meaningful legislation that will make it easier for students and 
parents to pay for a college education.
  Earlier this year, Members on the Republican side of the aisle passed 
a so-called deficit reduction bill that cut $12 billion from student 
aid--the largest single cut in financial aid programs in the history of 
the country.
  Although most of the $12 billion came from reducing the maximum yield 
private lenders could earn on loans, it also came from raising the 
interest rates on many of the loans parents take out for their kids' 
education.

  Right now, students are scrambling to consolidate their loans in 
order to lock in a low interest rate. Do you know why? July 1 is the 
deadline. Beginning then, students who are still in school will no 
longer be able to consolidate their loans at lower interest rates 
because of changes made in the deficit reduction bill. The low interest 
rates, incidentally, will be gone.
  We had an opportunity, with that change, to make a real investment in 
our children's future. Knowing that interest rates on student loans 
were about to jump from 5.3 percent to 6.8 percent for students, and 
from 6.1 percent to 8.5 percent for most parent borrowers, we could 
have made a real impact and taken the savings from the Deficit 
Reduction Act on student loans--$12 billion--and helped the students 
and their parents. Would that not have been a wise investment in our 
future? If we are not going to help students finish their college 
education to become the leaders of tomorrow, are we really preparing 
for our future?
  Sadly, the Republican majority took the $12 billion in savings from 
the college student loan program--money taken out of the program--and 
instead of giving it back to the students to help them get through 
school, they put the money in a fund to help pay for tax cuts for the 
wealthiest people in America. That is the most upside down logic in the 
world--to turn our backs on our young people who are struggling to pay 
off student loans for education and to say instead that the 
multimillionaires will receive a more generous tax break. That is what 
the leadership in Congress believes to be the highest priority. Not 
many families in America agree.
  The smart, hard-working students deserve a chance to get some help. 
But the Republican majority let them down.
  In April, I introduced a bill called the Reverse the Raid on Student 
Aid Act of 2006, to change that. The bill would increase the Pell grant 
and turn it into a mandatory spending program, with automatic annual 
increases; cut student and parent loan interest rates by 50 percent; 
and allow students to consolidate their loans while they are still in 
school. It would take the money given to the wealthiest in tax cuts and 
give it back to the students, to make college more affordable and to 
make the debts they face after graduation more manageable.
  The maximum Pell grant award has been frozen at $4,050 for 4 years. 
The President, once again this year, proposed keeping the award at the 
same level, $4,050, even though the total cost for tuition, fees, room 
and board at 4-year public universities has increased by 44 percent 
since President George W. Bush came to office. As the cost of college 
education has increased 44 percent, he has frozen the grants--Pell 
grants--for those kids from struggling families who are trying to get a 
college education, which means they either postpone their education, 
give up on their education, or borrow more money in student loans. Is 
that any gift to America? Is that looking forward?
  Twenty years ago, the maximum Pell grant for low-income and working 
families covered about half--55 percent--of the average cost of 
attending a 4-year public college. Today, it is down to 33 percent. 
That is more and more debt on students and their families.

[[Page S6553]]

  My bill would cut the scheduled interest rate increase. The average 
student debt of $17,500 has increased by more than 50 percent over the 
last 10 years. When students decide to take out a student loan, they 
are making a decision that can affect their lives for years and years 
beyond graduation. In some cases, a loan payment may be as high, or 
higher, than the amount they pay for rent or to buy a car.
  Large debt burdens can keep graduates from entering fields they 
really want to enter and force them to go for the biggest paycheck.
  A public interest research group recently said that more than a third 
of borrowers who graduate from private, 4-year colleges would face an 
``unmanageable'' debt on a starting teacher's salary, meaning they 
would need to set aside more than 8 percent of their pay to cover the 
student loans, diminishing the likelihood that they would become a 
teacher. Other significant life choices, such as buying a home or a car 
or starting a family or even a marriage may be delayed because of high 
student loan payments that are made worse by the policies of this 
administration and this Republican Congress.
  My Reverse the Raid on Student Aid bill reflects the type of serious 
investment I believe we have to make to ensure the future success of 
our young generation.
  Students who are qualified to go to college, students who want to go 
to college, students who can make valuable economic intellectual and 
cultural contributions to America by pursuing higher education should 
not be kept away from school because they don't have the money. These 
students have our future.
  If we want to move ahead in a global economy, we are not going to do 
it by importing talent from overseas. We have home-grown talent in 
America. This is a land of opportunity so long as we create the 
opportunity in schools across America, including our colleges and 
universities.
  The policies on student loans pushed by this Bush-Cheney 
administration go in the wrong direction. An investment in our kids' 
education--and this is an old cliche, but it is true--is an investment 
in our future. The best thing we can do is make sure higher education 
is accessible, and whenever the higher education reauthorization bill 
is considered by the full Senate, I hope we will have an opportunity to 
debate what happened to student financial aid.
  Lots of Members of Congress are going to hear from these students and 
parents when they realize after July 1 what has been done to them. We 
cannot continue to place the burden of paying for tax cuts on the backs 
of students and their families. It is not fair to them, nor is it the 
right thing to do for the future of our country.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Pennsylvania is recognized.

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