[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 91 (Thursday, June 12, 2014)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3637-S3639]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           STUDENT LOAN DEBT

  Mr. SANDERS. Madam President, yesterday we debated and voted on the 
need to lower interest rates for students with college debt.
  I consider the issue of the high cost of college and student 
indebtedness to be one of the very serious problems facing our country, 
impacting millions and millions of young people and their families.
  What I did through my Web site is just ask people from Vermont and 
around the country to briefly write stories about the impact of college 
debt on their lives.
  What I would like to do very briefly is to read some of the very 
poignant stories we have received. I believe we have received now over 
700 stories from people all over America who are talking about what the 
student debt they have incurred is meaning to their lives.
  Let me very briefly read some of the responses we have received.
  Shannon Lucy, 29, is from Essex Junction, VT. She is $90,000 in debt. 
She wrote:

       I currently live in my boyfriend's parents' basement 
     because I cannot afford to pay both rent and my nearly $900 
     per month student loan payments. Despite working two jobs and 
     living rent-free I am barely making ends meet. I can't even 
     dream of buying a house or supporting a child--I can't even 
     support myself. Getting married would mean burdening someone 
     else with my debt so that's not financially possible either. 
     I thought I did everything right. I thought getting an 
     education was an investment in my future. But now there's not 
     a single day when I don't feel like I'm drowning under this 
     massive load of debt. And the worst part is that even though 
     the president is introducing student loan relief measures 
     because my loans are mostly privately funded there's still no 
     relief for me.

  I wish to read a statement that I received from Brittany Holman, 29, 
who is from Portland, OR, and is $200,000 in debt. She writes:

       I'm scared and am desperately in need of help. I'm nearly 
     $200,000 in debt from student loans all because I wanted to 
     get an education. Was that not what I was supposed to do? I 
     graduated from Syracuse University in 2006 went to Japan for 
     two years to teach English and then came back home to a 
     crashed economy and a bleak job market.
       Despite my two B.A. degrees from a great university, I have 
     to settle for underemployment in a minimum wage retail job.

  Andrew Englebrecht, 22 years of age from New Lenox, IL, $80,000 in 
debt, writes:

       It makes me depressed. I have no hope. Nothing will ever 
     get better. I'm scared. I can't go get my masters because my 
     life has already been ruined. I ruined my parents' life. The 
     bank finally was willing to work with us and not take our 
     house; that doesn't mean we can pay the loans back either. I 
     can't move out of the house. I can't propose to the girl I 
     love. I can't live because I can't dream. I'm afraid to have 
     kids because I'm scared they wouldn't have a chance.

  This is one from Eric Anders, 29, of Chicago, IL, $125,000 in debt. 
He writes:

       My law school debt is astronomical. It will keep me from 
     being a homeowner for a long time. I believe serious efforts 
     need to be made to reduce the costs of attending both college 
     and graduate school.

  Kelly Weiner, 27, from Brooklyn, NY, is $134,000 in debt, and says:

       I went to law school because I wanted to help people and 
     communities who are underserved by the law. . . . I am 
     currently paying back my loans on an income-based repayment 
     plan with a 7.3% interest rate which means I am not even 
     making a dent in my debt. . . . According to my repayment 
     plan I will be in my fifties before I get out of debt.

  Saul Barraza, 23, of Littleton, CO, $35,000 in debt, writes:

       I feel like I'm sinking further and further into debt. The 
     interest rate on my loans is eating me alive. I don't believe 
     that I've ever touched the principal on my loans. I simply 
     pay interest and avoid default. . . . I feel that my debt is 
     holding me back from being able to contribute to society. It 
     is a ball and chain that follows me everywhere I go 
     preventing me from starting the rest of my life.

  Lastly, let me read from Dustin Green, 28, of Yukon, OK--$50,000 in 
debt between him and his wife:

       Between my wife and myself we pay over $600 a month for our 
     student loans. I have a good job and can barely afford these 
     payments along with normal bills. After graduation dealing 
     with each loan company was a task of its own. They do not 
     care if you have enough money to eat but simply to pay them 
     back. My wife and I are wanting to buy our first home but 
     with so much of our salaries going to monthly student loan 
     payments we can't make that step yet. We have both wondered 
     if the yearly income difference with a college education is 
     worth the extra debt.

  So those are just some of the 700-plus stories that we have heard 
from young people and their families all over this country about the 
crushing impact that student debt is having on their lives.
  We have to address this issue. We have to make college affordable for 
all Americans regardless of income.

[[Page S3638]]

  I hope that we can do that sooner rather than later.
  Mr. SANDERS. I yield the floor, and I suggest the absence of a 
quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Ms. Hirono). The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Ms. MURKOWSKI. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the 
order for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Ms. MURKOWSKI. Madam President, this has been an interesting week 
here in the Senate.
  When we began this week, there was a great deal of attention focused 
on what was happening overseas with the release of a prisoner of war 
who had been in captivity for some 4 to 5 years, Sergeant Bergdahl.
  Conversation moved to education, with a measure that Senator Warren 
from Massachusetts had introduced. The thought was we would be 
discussing education issues--the high cost of college and the burden of 
college debt on our students.
  Then we turned later yesterday to veterans and how we address the 
real scandal we have seen within the VA in failing to provide that 
level of care in a timely manner for our veterans who have served us so 
honorably.
  It has been kind of a fast and furious week, and I wish to take a few 
minutes this afternoon to talk about my perspective on not only the 
legislation that Senator Warren had put out for discussion, but, 
really, the concerns so many in this country have when it comes to the 
issue of student loan debt.
  I am the mom of a recent college graduate. Our number two son is 
going to be entering his senior year of college. So we are fully 
embroiled as parents in the understanding as to what the current costs 
of a college education are, what young students go through in order to 
achieve their dreams of going to college and their struggles as they 
then face the reality of moving into a working world, but starting off 
saddled with debt that can be almost breathtaking for them.
  In addition to being a mom of kids in this generation, I am also a 
former commissioner of the Alaska Commission on Postsecondary 
Education. This is Alaska's State agency lender. So I am coming at the 
issue wearing a couple of different hats today.
  I know full well people are discussing the issue of the high cost of 
college and student loan debt--and not just here on the floor of the 
Senate but talking about it around their kitchen tables. They are very 
concerned about the cost of college and the burden the debt then places 
on our young Americans.
  Young people who are just starting out after college graduation have 
an average debt of about $27,000. Now, some would say $27,000 is 
manageable; that is about in the range if you are purchasing a new car. 
But think about it. For a young person just out of college, starting to 
make those initial payments, $27,000 can be a staggering amount. 
Whether we talk to the young people working the phones in either a 
State office or here, the young interns that I have--who are excited 
about the prospects of going to college or are in the midst of college 
or who have just graduated from college--some of that excitement and 
that enthusiasm dims when they realize what it is they are taking on. 
So this debt is daunting.
  Keep in mind, that debt then assumes the means to pay it back. So 
many of our young people of course cannot find a job. For the 18- to 
24-year-old age bracket, the unemployment rate is twice the national 
average. For those graduating with a masters or a doctorate, of course, 
the debt burden is much more.
  Then for the parents and those who have taken out loans to help put 
their kids through college--many families also struggling. So, again, 
this is something that families are talking about around their dinner 
table. And I am hearing about this from parents, from high school and 
college students in Alaska, and talking with my interns here. They all 
say the same thing. They are all concerned. They are all concerned 
about the cost of college and job training and the debt they are going 
to incur and their ability then to move forward, whether it is to buy 
that first car, whether it is to purchase a home, the decisions about 
getting married or starting a family. The debt has an impact, and that 
is absolutely a given.

  I do think it is important to know we in Congress have not turned a 
blind eye to this and we have been working over the years to help 
address the cost. The College Cost Reduction and Access Act and the 
Higher Education Opportunity Act are measures that I worked to craft 
some years ago, and they address these issues in many ways. We created 
income-based repayment and public service loan forgiveness. There was 
Active Military loan deferment, graduate student eligibility for income 
contingent repayment, interest rate reductions, Pell grant increases, 
TEACH grants, automatic zero expected family contribution for low-
income families and much more.
  We improved student support programs like TRIO and helped ensure 
students and parents have access to the kind of information they need 
to ensure they really do get top dollar for their education dollars and 
also to help students then persist in college to complete that process 
to earn the degree. We required counseling for federal loan borrowers 
prior to the students' graduation on repayment plans, debt management, 
loan forgiveness, consequences of default, tax benefits, and more. We 
also required disclosure about the terms and conditions of the Federal 
Family Education Loan Program. These are the FFEL loan programs before 
the loans are disbursed, before repayment, and during repayment.
  Recently Congress has supported pay as you earn and other programs 
and just last year enacted a new interest rate structure to protect 
both students and taxpayers.
  Unfortunately, we haven't seen much out of the administration to make 
Americans aware that these opportunities actually exist, that they are 
in law. We heard a nominee for a senior policy position at the U.S. 
Department of Education who tried to justify this lack of action by 
saying the provisions were just enacted recently. But 7 years ago is 
not recent when it comes to helping Americans understand the many loan 
repayment options. Just this week we heard the President give the 
Department of Education yet another 6 months to figure out how to tell 
Americans about their loan repayment options. I think we can do better.
  I heard just last week a young teacher who was testifying before a 
Senate committee. She said she was completely unaware of the income-
based repayment program which could have saved her about $4,000. 
Instead, with her unaffordably high loan payments, she basically 
defaulted on her loans. So it is important that when we put measures in 
place, we do make sure that education effort is there on the back end 
so people understand and can take advantage of some of these 
initiatives that will help to make a difference.
  Obviously we do not have the Warren legislation in front of us for 
consideration. I am certain that it will be a matter that will be 
brought back before the Senate. I certainly would hope we would have 
extended debate about what we as a Senate can be doing to help our 
young people as they deal with the burden of college debt, of job 
training debt, and what we can do to ensure they are well on their way 
to good strong careers. But I want to raise just a couple of issues 
that presented themselves with the legislation that Senator Warren had 
put out on the floor, because they speak to a program in my State that 
has considerable impact.
  Madam President, I know that I was scheduled to speak for about 15 
minutes this afternoon. I have another colleague that is on the floor. 
I would ask unanimous consent for about another 5 minutes, if that is 
acceptable to my colleague and to the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Ms. MURKOWSKI. I thank the Presiding Officer, and I thank my friend 
from Ohio.
  First, I would like to bring up the issue of the Alaska State student 
aid agency. The Alaska Commission on Postsecondary Education--or as we 
call it ACPE--is funded by the Alaska Student Loan Corporation. It is a 
public corporation in the State of Alaska and it is an agency that 
originates Federal loans under the old Federal Family Education Loan 
Program, FFEL, and for 40 years it has originated State loans. Now, 
before you dismiss ACPE

[[Page S3639]]

as just another private lender, let me tell you what this agency does. 
It is the Alaska agency for authorizing and investigating institutions 
of higher education. They provide consumer protection for Alaskans. 
They gather student data to inform policymakers so we know what 
policies and practices are working and where improvement is necessary. 
They manage the State's performance scholarships and education grants, 
which provide both merit and need-based grants to Alaskan students for 
postsecondary education. They create and manage college readiness and 
job training programs and help them figure out how to afford it. What 
ACPE does is promote access to and success in high quality post-
secondary education and job training for thousands of Alaskans and non-
Alaskans who are attending Alaskan schools. But they also have a 
special emphasis on outreach to groups that are underrepresented in 
postsecondary education.
  They do such a great job for us in the State that when the late-
Senator Ted Kennedy was here, he insisted on creating the College 
Access Challenge Grant Program to expand what ACPE had been doing for 
all these years.
  But the measure that Senator Warren has, the Bank on Students 
Emergency Loan Refinancing Act, would potentially put these programs in 
peril and potentially end them. It would incentivize borrowers who 
borrowed their FFEL loans and their State loans through ACPE to 
refinance. But because this opportunity would only be available to 
borrowers in good standing on their State loans, it would leave ACPE 
with only the poorest performing and lowest credit quality loans in its 
portfolio, leaving behind the borrowers who are the ones the sponsors 
of the bill say we really need to help so much.
  The loss of the FFEL loans would be bad enough, but here is another 
problem. State student financial aid loans were financed by the Alaska 
Student Loan Corporation through long-term fixed rate revenue bond 
issues. These have very restrictive terms with respect to paying them 
off before their scheduled maturity dates. The impact on the State 
agencies and the Alaskans they serve and to the corporation's bond 
rating of having a large percentage of student loan volume prepaid 
through this refinancing bill would be severe. The money the Treasury 
would pay ACPE for those loans could not be used to pay off the bonds 
early, nor can it be reinvested at anywhere near the interest rate on 
the outstanding bonds. The value of the bonds exceeds $65 million. It 
is not only the cost to the agency and its ability to function. Whether 
the State corporation were to default or to perhaps go to the 
legislature for a bailout, the consequences are not good. Either 
situation would be toxic for the Alaska Student Loan Corporation in 
terms of subsequently being able to issue bonds that really would be 
palatable to any investor.
  In addition to the risk of default or a hefty bill placed on the 
State and being labeled a toxic risk to bond issuers, the combined loss 
of income across both old FFEL loans and State loans could very well 
leave ACPE unable to continue to perform any of the services that it 
performs really quite well.
  This is not the only issue I have as it relates to what we have 
before us this week. We don't want our students, our young people to be 
struggling when it comes to debt. We have to work together to try to 
find the solutions that truly are helpful across the spectrum. One of 
the problems that we noted, though, was that the bill would prohibit 
Americans who have private loans from banks or State agencies, and who 
are having trouble paying as agreed, to refinance to a lower rate--a 
prohibition that does not extend to those who are having trouble paying 
their Direct and FFEL loans. I cannot understand why we would treat 
Americans differently based on the kind of debt they have. The sponsors 
of the bill I think genuinely want to help struggling borrowers, but 
with this provision they leave a lot of folks out in the cold. So that 
is something that needs to be addressed.

  According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, the cost of 
college is going up, but State funding for higher education, which went 
down during the recession, is not rebounding. We are seeing exceptions 
in Alaska and North Dakota. But according to the CBPP, Louisiana is at 
the top of the list and contributes a little over $5,000 less per 
student to higher education than they did prior to fiscal year 2008. 
Hawaii, New Mexico, and Alabama are seeing $4,000 per student less. 
Idaho, South Carolina, Massachusetts, Nevada, Connecticut, and Arizona 
are in the $3,000 less per student range. The list goes on.
  So when the States are unable to contribute to their public 
universities and postsecondary education in general, the cost burden 
then for our students too often goes up. Even when our colleges tighten 
their belts and cut their internal costs, we see the costs rise.
  So obviously there is a great deal to do. I know that so many of my 
colleagues are committed to working to find that good solution which 
works not only for students in my State but around the entire country.
  We have our work cut out for us. I appreciate the efforts that many 
have made. I think the discussion will continue, and I look forward to 
that.
  With that I yield to my colleague from Ohio, and I thank the Senator 
for his indulgence of an additional 5 minutes.

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