[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 65 (Wednesday, May 9, 2012)]
[House]
[Page H2451]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           STUDENT LOAN DEBT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Vermont (Mr. Welch) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. WELCH. Mr. Speaker, right now, families across this country are 
sitting around their kitchen tables trying to figure out how they can 
send their kids to college. They're talking about how to finance a 
college education when the cost of that is rising faster than the cost 
of health care.
  Parents are making some very difficult decisions. Should we refinance 
our homes and dwindle our retirement? How much money can we borrow? How 
much can we ask our kids to borrow in order to put this financial 
package together? And for the first time, many of these parents are 
considering the unthinkable: maybe they can't afford to send their kids 
to college.
  Meanwhile, in 52 days, if Congress does not act, a very bad situation 
will get worse. On July 1, the interest rates on the Stafford student 
loans will double from 3.4 to 6.8 percent. Vermont students, American 
students and parents need action from Congress and need it now.
  Over the past few weeks, I've been asking Vermonters to share their 
real-world stories, and I'd like to tell a few.
  Katie from West Glover graduated with $36,000 in student loan debt. 
And it's a tough economy. She's had a hard time finding a job, so she 
took an internship so she can keep advancing her career. She works 5 to 
6 days a week making 25 bucks a day. She's essentially providing well-
educated, cheap labor, but she doesn't have a choice. She doesn't 
regret her decision to go to school, but she's getting extremely 
apprehensive about her ability to get this financial albatross off her 
back.
  Sue from Newport has $125,000 in debt. She also has some medical 
problems which limit the kind of work that she can do, but she does 
work and has a full-time job. But student loan payments are $600 a 
month, making it very difficult for her to pay her other bills, and she 
has no savings and no retirement.
  Peter, a parent from Calais, Vermont, he always believed that he 
could send his son to college. Now he's not sure that he can. His son 
has done his part, graduating from high school with honors, and he's 
been accepted to a number of very good institutions. But with tuition 
costs at those schools ranging from $30,000 to $56,000 a year, Peter 
from Calais is just not sure that their family is going to be able to 
make this work out.
  Julie from Huntington, Vermont. She grew up in a single-parent home, 
living below the poverty line, but she was told that if she worked hard 
in school, studied, she could achieve a great future. She did her part. 
She also was taught, by the way, that she should avoid debt at all 
costs. She is pursuing college but working three jobs while she's going 
to school full-time. And she's still piling up debt. She was taught to 
believe that if she worked hard and applied herself she could achieve 
great things. Now working three jobs, piling up debt, ``Is there a way 
out?'' is the question she's asking.
  Mr. Speaker, this is more than about extending the low interest on 
the Stafford loans. It's really about whether we're going to have a 
pathway for people trying to climb into the middle class to get there 
and for people in the middle class to stay there. How much more burden 
can we impose on folks who want a future for their families, for their 
kids? It is absolutely unconscionable, in this world that we're in, to 
double student interest rates from 3.4 to 6.8 percent.
  It is time for Congress to stand up for the middle class, for those 
folks from Vermont and around the country who are trying to do the best 
for themselves and for their country.

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