[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 156 (Thursday, September 28, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6197-S6199]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
Unanimous Consent Request--S. 1808
Ms. BALDWIN. Mr. President, in 2 days, unless Congress acts, the
Federal Perkins Loan Program--the Nation's oldest Federal student loan
program--will expire, leaving thousands of students with one fewer
option to help them afford a higher education.
Since 1958, the Perkins Loan Program has existed with broad
bipartisan support and has provided millions of students a stronger
path to the middle class.
In the 2016 to 2017 academic year, the program has served more than
770,000 students with financial need across more than 1,400
institutions of higher education. In my home State of Wisconsin alone,
Perkins provided aid to more than 23,000 students who are working hard
to achieve their dreams.
Colleges and universities are invested in Perkins. This program
operates through campus-based revolving funds that combine prior
Federal investments with significant institutional resources. While
Congress stopped appropriating new funds for Perkins more than a decade
ago, these schools continue to invest in this program because they know
it works, and the campus-based nature of the program allows them to
target aid to students they know are in the greatest financial need.
I am here to call on all of my colleagues to join me in supporting
the extension of this critical program and investment in our students
across America.
Two years ago, we allowed this important program to lapse, but thanks
to the tireless efforts of students, institutions, advocates, and a
bicameral, bipartisan majority in support of Perkins, we were able to
advance a compromise that ensured that this source of support continued
to be available to students in need.
Once again, we are facing a deadline. Once again, there is strong
bipartisan
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support for extending the Perkins Loan Program. Last week, Senators
Portman, Casey, and Collins joined me in introducing the Perkins Loan
Program Extension Act, which would provide for a 2-year extension. My
fellow Wisconsinite, Representative Mark Pocan, together with New York
Representative Elise Stefanik, have introduced a House companion bill
that is supported by over 225 of their colleagues--a bipartisan
majority in that Chamber.
I am here to call on my colleagues to act once again and support a 2-
year extension of the Perkins Loan Program. And while I look forward to
a broader conversation about improving Federal supports for students as
we look to reauthorize the Higher Education Act, we cannot once again
sit by and watch it expire as America's students are left with
uncertainty.
Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the HELP Committee be
discharged from further consideration of S. 1808, a bill to extend the
Federal Perkins Loan Program for 2 years; that the Senate proceed to
its immediate consideration and the bill be considered read a third
time and passed, with no intervening action or debate.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, I object.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard.
The Senator from Tennessee.
Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, I would like to take a moment to
explain my reason for the objection.
First, I would like to say to the Senator from Wisconsin that I am
grateful for her work on the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions
Committee, where she is a valuable, diligent, and constructive member.
We work on a great many things together and have agreed to very many
things. However, we disagree on this one, and here is why. Let me
summarize it at the beginning of my remarks and then explain it with a
little more detail.
No one who has a Perkins loan today loses that loan, period. So if
you are a student anywhere in the country and you have a Perkins loan
for this year, you don't lose that loan, period.
Second, no one who has a Perkins loan for next year loses that loan
because no one has one. They were ended 2 years ago. Every student was
told in his or her financial aid information that the Perkins Loan
Program ends this year, so no one could expect to have one next year.
No one has been granted one for next year, so no one who has a loan is
losing a loan.
Why did we, in December of 2015--2 years ago--reach a bipartisan
agreement to sunset, or end, the Perkins Loan Program in 2 years, which
is the end of this week? In that agreement, we allowed graduate
students to receive Perkins loans for 1 additional year and
undergraduates to receive Perkins loans for 2 additional years. It was
made clear at that time--2 years ago--that this was the last time the
program would be extended, but we wanted to have a smooth transition,
and we did not want students and colleges and universities to be
surprised. That agreement, therefore, included many requirements for
institutions of higher education to inform students over the last 2
years that the Perkins Loan Program would end on September 30 of this
year, which is the end of this week. That agreement also set policies
to make the sunsetting of Perkins loans as smooth as possible for
students. The expiration of this loan program was not and should not
have been a surprise. It has not received any appropriation since the
year 2004, and the U.S. Department of Education reminded institutions
that it was ending the program this year.
Now, why? Why are we ending the program? Why did we agree to do that
2 years ago, and why have the last three Presidents recommended that we
end it--President Obama, President Trump, and President Bush?
The Department of Education estimated that in the 2016 to 2017 school
year--that is the school year that just ended--the Perkins Loan Program
provided less than $800 million in new Perkins loans to about 300,000
recipients. That may seem like a lot, but by comparison, the Department
estimated that the Federal Government disbursed over $22 billion to
almost 7 million undergraduate students in the Stafford Subsidized Loan
Program, or the regular Direct Loan Program. The Perkins loan--a
separate loan--provides an average loan of roughly $2,000, and it
illustrates the complicated mess in which students find themselves
because of our Federal student aid system today.
The Perkins loans have a higher interest rate than other loans that
are available to students today. The interest rate is 5 percent,
compared with 4.45 percent for undergraduate loans. And students who
have a Perkins loan aren't eligible for certain programs that exist for
students with other loans, such as the income-based repayment programs
and the public service loan forgiveness programs, which help students
manage repayment of their loans. Those aren't available to students
with a Perkins loan. The default rate for Perkins loans is higher than
for the Stafford loan.
The bill which the Senator from Wisconsin has offered would cost
taxpayers, according to the Congressional Budget Office, $900 million
for a 2-year extension. If we were to extend the program over 10 years,
it would cost $6.5 billion, according to the Congressional Budget
Office. The bill does not have an offset, so these billions of dollars
would only serve to add to the $20 trillion Federal debt we already
have.
I object because I think it is time for our country, through
legislation by this Congress, to move on to a simplified Federal
student aid program that has only one Federal loan for students, one
Federal grant for students, and one work-study program for students.
As I have spoken often about on this floor, along with Senator Bennet
from Colorado, we would like to reduce the application form for those
Federal grants and loans called FAFSA--the dreaded FAFSA which 20
million students and their families fill out every year. We would like
to reduce that from 108 questions to 2 or 5 or 10 questions.
We need a much simpler program for Federal student loans, and the end
of the Perkins Loan Program is a small step toward that end.
As I mentioned, President Bush recommended that the program end,
President Obama recommended that the program be changed and folded, in
effect, into the regular Direct Student Loan Program, and President
Trump has the same position.
I look forward to working with my colleagues, including the Senator
from Wisconsin, on the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act
later this year, when we can work together to improve our Federal
student loan programs and our grant programs, find ways to simplify
them, make it easier and cheaper for students to attend college, and to
help students pay those loans off, after they get them, in a fair and
simpler way.
I thank the Presiding Officer.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Wisconsin.
Ms. BALDWIN. Mr. President, I am certainly disappointed that my
effort to extend the Perkins Loan Program today was just blocked by my
Republican colleague, but I want to say that it is an honor to serve on
the HELP Committee, where we do some very impressive bipartisan work.
I understand the Senator's concern about the program and his belief
that we must simplify. I share his desire to work on a broader
reauthorization of the Higher Education Act, and I look forward to that
broader conversation about our Federal financial aid programs. However,
I do not think it is right or fair to end this program, with nothing to
replace it, to the detriment of students in need.
Also, I cannot agree that the compromise we hammered out 2 years ago
was an agreement to wind down the program. I guess it is the
perspective that we each bring to this subject, because I believed we
were acting to ensure that the Perkins Loan Program could continue
until we could discuss changes, improvements, and reforms to it and all
Federal financial aid programs as part of broader legislation to
improve higher education. We have yet to get to that bigger
conversation, and it would once again be unfair to let this program end
now without the benefit of a holistic assessment of the many ways the
Federal Government helps to make college affordable for students across
this country.
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I will continue to fight to extend this support for America's
students, and I hope the chairman of the committee will once again work
with me and the bipartisan supporters of this program to find a path
forward for the Perkins Loan Program.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Tennessee.
Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, I will conclude my remarks because I
see the Senator from Mississippi is here.
Of course I will be glad to work with the Senator from Wisconsin. The
fact is, 2 years ago we agreed to end the program. The graduate loans
ended last year, and the undergraduate loans end this year. Everybody
was told about it.
Every student who wants a loan can get a direct student loan from the
government at a lower rate, with better repayment programs and better
payment provisions than the Perkins loan. So no one is losing a loan,
and everyone can get a better loan if they apply for a direct loan.
We do need a simpler program, and we need to simplify the application
process for applying for the loans and grants and for paying them off.
I thank the Presiding Officer.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Mississippi.