[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 185 (Tuesday, November 19, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6646-S6648]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
Unanimous Consent Request--S. 2557
Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, for the convenience of the Senator from
Pennsylvania, I am going to offer my unanimous consent agreement at the
beginning of my remarks, and then if he wishes to stay, he can, but if
he has another place to go in his schedule, he may do that.
Let me just say that the provision I am going to--let me preface it
in this way. I know very well the value of historically Black colleges.
One of my favorite stories is the story that the late author, Alex
Haley, the author of ``Roots'' and ``The Autobiography of Malcolm X''--
I suppose the two best selling books ever on the history of the African
American--used to tell about his father, Simon P. Haley, who was wasted
as a child. That was the word they used.
He was allowed to go to college, and he went to North Carolina A&T
where he was ready to drop out. He came back, got a summer job on a
Pullman train to Chicago, and a man talked to him at night asking him
for a glass of warm milk. He got the glass of warm milk and thought
nothing more about it. He went back to North Carolina A&T, a
historically Black college.
The principal called him in. He thought he was in real trouble, as
the president of the college called him in. Simon P. Haley thought he
was in real trouble. The President of the college said that the man on
the train had sent enough money for Simon P. Haley to graduate--to pay
his tuition to graduate from college.
So Alex Haley wrote for the Reader's Digest the story of the man on
the train who helped his father. That father went to Cornell and became
the first Black graduate of Cornell's agricultural college. He came
back to Lane College, one of the six historically Black colleges in
Tennessee, where he taught and raised a son, who is a lawyer, later
Ambassador to Gambia; two daughters, one a teacher; he raised another
son, an architect; and then he raised a son he thought wouldn't amount
to anything who joined the Coast Guard and ended up writing a Pulitzer
Prize-winning book, ``Roots,'' and ``The Autobiography of Malcolm X.''
I know the value of Lane College, Fisk University, Tennessee State
University, Lemoyne-Owen College, Meharry Medical College, and America
Baptist College, and I want to help them. The request I am going to
make is that the Senate pass a small package of bills that are
sponsored by Democrats and Republicans, 29 Senators--17 Democrats and
12 Republicans. The first provision would be permanent funding. That is
$255 million every year permanently for historically Black colleges and
minority-serving institutions. A second provision--I ask consent to use
this document on the Senate floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. ALEXANDER. That is the FAFSA. This is the document that 20
million Americans fill out every year. We know how to reduce it. It is
the biggest impediment to minority students going to college today. We
are ready to pass it. Eight million minority students fill this out.
The president of the Southwest Community College from Memphis tells me
he loses 1,500 students a semester because of the complexity of that.
There are other provisions in this package, which include the
Portman-Kaine provision for short-term Pell grants sponsored by about
20 Senators, many of them Democrats; the provision for Pell grants for
prisoners who are eligible for parole; an increase in the number of
Pell grants; an increase in the amount of Pell grants. All of that is
in this package that I have offered, but it starts with permanent
funding for historically black colleges. Since there is time until
October 1 of next year, the Department of Education has said that there
is plenty of Federal funding for all of those institutions. There is no
reason we can't agree to my package today, send it over to the House of
Representatives, send it to the President, and let all of these
institutions know they don't have to worry about funding permanently
instead of just for 2 years.
[[Page S6647]]
So, Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on
Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions be discharged from further
consideration of S. 2557 and the Senate proceed to its immediate
consideration. I ask unanimous consent that the bill be considered read
a third time and passed and that the motion to reconsider be considered
made and laid upon the table.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
The Senator from Pennsylvania.
Mr. CASEY. Mr. President, reserving the right to object, I just want
to make a couple of comments by way of response.
I really want to go back to what we said earlier. There is no reason
we can't at least get this piece of legislation done. I will say it
again: These institutions are underresourced. They don't have the
flexibility to operate in the red in the hopes of potential
reimbursement later on.
We are also told by the institutions themselves that planning has
``all but stopped.'' Campuses are feeling this impact already. Just 2
weeks after this program expired, some campuses informed employees that
their positions and programs may be terminated. So I would argue that
the present circumstance is not acceptable.
I realize the chairman wants to proceed to other issues, and I
respect that, but when you consider what he is proposing, there are
some changes that should be pointed out.
First of all, when considering the proposal he has, in comparing what
it would do, for example, on the Second Chance Pell proposal, that only
contains a limited repeal of the ban rather than a full repeal of the
ban. Any reference to the JOBS Act making short-term programs eligible
for Pell grants--a bipartisan bill that was introduced--excludes for-
profit colleges. In this micropackage that the chairman is proposing,
the for-profit colleges are added back in.
No. 3, just by way of some examples, in the Grassley-Smith bill on
financial aid award letters, some changes were made to that on
financial aid award letters that weren't contemplated by the bill's
original authors.
Our legislation is fully paid for. It reinvests up to $55 million in
recovery programs. For several reasons, by way of contrast but also by
way of what is happening right now with regard to these institutions--
for those and other reasons, I object.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard.
The Senator from Tennessee.
Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, I know this Senate is a deliberative
body, but we have been working on higher education for 5 years in our
committee, and suddenly, out of the blue, comes a bill out of the House
which says that we have an emergency in one provision of the Higher
Education Act; don't take it through committee. That is the way we
usually do things.
The distinguished Senator from Louisiana is a member of this
committee, and the Senator from Pennsylvania is a valued member of the
committee. We have a pretty good reputation for working together,
despite our differences, in fixing No Child Left Behind, 21st Century
Cures, opioid legislation. Healthcare is a contentious issue, but by a
vote of 20 to 3, we brought out a bill to lower healthcare costs.
Yet the suggestion is that we take this bill to the Senate floor
without any consideration by the committee. That is not the way we
usually do things.
Let me reemphasize that the U.S. Department of Education has told
every one of the historically Black colleges and minority-serving
institutions that there is sufficient Federal funding between now and
October 1 of next year. There is no reason to cut anybody's pay and no
reason to stop planning. That is what the Federal Government has told
those institutions. That is plenty of time for us to take a provision--
such as the one I have proposed or such as the one that the
distinguished Senator from Pennsylvania has proposed--through our
committee and recommend to the full Senate what we ought to do.
Let's not minimize what else there is to do. I mean, we literally
have been working for 5 years on simplifying this FAFSA. There are 8
million minority students who fill it out every year. I think we should
be concerned about the 300,000 students who attend historically Black
colleges and universities. Many of them fill this out. I am told by the
former Governor of Tennessee that filling out this complicated form is
the single biggest impediment for low-income students having an
opportunity to go to college because their families think it is too
complicated.
Well, we know what to do about this. Senator Bennet, the Democratic
Senator from Colorado, and I began working on this 5 years ago. Senator
Murray, the Democratic Senator from Washington, and I recommended that
the Senate pass legislation getting rid of 22 questions that were
double reporting. You have to tell the IRS some facts, and you have to
tell the Department of Education the same facts, and then they come in
the middle of the semester and try to catch you having one answer here
and another answer there. So at East Tennessee State University, 70
percent of the student body has their Pell grant verified, and some of
them lose their Federal funding while they check to see if the
information they had to give to two Federal agencies is different. We
passed the Senate with that--Senator Murray and I did that last year.
So why should we wait on this? I don't think we should wait on
permanent funding for historically Black colleges, but why hold this
hostage to that?
I am ready to move ahead on permanent funding for historically Black
colleges. I am ready to move ahead on simplifying the FAFSA for 8
million students who fill this out every year. I am ready to move ahead
on short-term Pell grants. I have been working with the Senator from
Washington on this and with other Members of the Senate. I think we are
moving to a consensus. We have time to do this right. Let's take it
through committee and send back to the House of Representatives a
permanent solution.
I think it is very important that we make clear to all of the
presidents and all of the students at historically Black colleges and
minority-serving institutions, No. 1, you have a year of funding ahead
of you; No. 2, you have a proposal by the chairman of the Education
Committee that will permanently fund what you are doing; and No. 3, our
Democratic friends are asking that the Senate pass short-term funding
that will create another funding cliff within a matter of months and
that is funded by a budget gimmick that will never pass muster in the
Senate. That is not going to happen.
So we need to work together as we normally do and come to a
conclusion on the Higher Education Act, including permanent funding of
historically Black colleges and minority institutions. I am ready to
keep doing that. But I am also ready to encourage the passage not only
of the provisions that I have introduced and that I asked for
permission to pass today, which the Senator objected to, but other
provisions that might be included.
I think 5 years is long enough to work on the Higher Education Act. I
am coming to the conclusion we have time to do it, and I look forward
to saying to our six historically Black colleges in Tennessee that the
result of our hard work and debate and discussion has been permanent
funding, so you don't have to worry about Federal funding.
Mr. BURR. Mr. Chairman, will the Senator yield?
Mr. ALEXANDER. I will yield.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from North Carolina.
Mr. BURR. Mr. President, I thank the chairman for yielding, and I am
here as living proof that he is not the Lone Ranger on this. The
committee has worked diligently. We may not be as passionate as he is,
but the committee has worked diligently to get higher education done.
It is a farce to come in here and think that we are going to pass a
2-year House bill to fund historically Black colleges. Nobody has more
historically Black colleges in their State than I do. What they want--
they want predictability, permanent funding. The chairman is willing to
do that, but part of the condition to do that is to sit down and, now,
quit talking and pass higher education. Reduce the FAFSA application to
one page. Let these students go out--and their parents--and be able to
fill this out and not miss an education because they can't go through
the laborious process.
[[Page S6648]]
What the chairman has laid on the table is reasonable. The committee
has talked about it for years. Now it is time to act. It is not time to
act on one little piece of it for temporary funding. It is time to
provide permanent funding for that and to do the rest of higher
education.
As proud as I am of our being the home of the majority of Black
colleges and universities, I also have about 70 other colleges and
universities in North Carolina, and they are the beneficiaries of
everything else that is in this education bill.
Compromise is not about ``Take what I have'' and not give anything
else. We have been trying to work, with the chairman and the ranking
member working together, to find compromise for 5 years. Many times the
chairman has come to me and said: I think we can do it this year. Well,
we have to have willing partners on the other side of the aisle. Today
is a live example of where it is either their way or no way.
I hope we can get back, and, before we leave this year, we can get
this package passed. It is really simple: Just commit to do what we all
have sat down and talked about for 5 years. If there are minor changes
that need to be made, let's make them in the next day or two. But to
say that we are going to wait until next year and be here a year from
now when that timeframe has run out, let me assure you, if the chairman
is not here to object to this request, I will be here to object to this
request.
The time to talk is over. The time to act is now.
I thank the chairman for yielding.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Pennsylvania.
Mr. CASEY. Just a couple of points on where we are: There is no
question that, in my judgment, if you have more time to consider these
issues for a full reauthorization, we could address some of the
shortcomings that have been proposed already. I mentioned earlier
issues that are not addressed, such as childcare, housing, food and
mental health, the needs of first-generation students, needs of
students of color, and students with disabilities. We can do that if we
can get through this short-term period. We are asking for help only for
a very limited timeframe so that we can work through these other
issues.
The second point I would make is, I can't stand in the shoes of the
leaders of these institutions, but when they tell us that they are in a
difficult circumstance in the short run, I will take their word for it.
The word of the Department of Education--just from my point of view--
doesn't compare to what these institutions are telling us. So I think
we should rely upon the representations by the leaders of the
institutions and act in a short-term fashion, all the while committing
ourselves to have a longer process to fully explore and try to reach
consensus on a range of issues that come under the broad purview of
reauthorization.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Tennessee.
Mr. ALEXANDER. I want to thank the Senator from Pennsylvania for
coming to the floor today on an issue I know he cares about. I thank
the Senator from North Carolina.
We are accustomed to working together. We are accustomed to getting
results, and I want to get a result on this.
I agree with both Senators in this sense: I think it is time to send
a signal to historically Black colleges and minority-serving
institutions that they don't have to worry about funding for the
future. For the next year, the Department of Education has told them:
You have the money for the next year. It shouldn't take us a year to
finish our work.
So I look forward to sitting down with the Senator from North
Carolina and the Senator from Pennsylvania and working out their
differences on the provisions that we have. We have the basis for a
very good higher education bill--the permanent funding for historically
Black colleges, the simplification of the FAFSA, which affects 20
million families every year. We have broad bipartisan consensus on
simplifying how you pay back student loans. There are nine different
ways now. We could reduce that to two. That affects 43 million
families.
The short-term Pell grants make a big difference.
So we have a number of provisions, and I am working well, as I always
do, with the Senator from Washington, Mrs. Murray. I would like to
bring this to a conclusion as rapidly as we can. I think this debate
has been useful to do that. I look forward to continuing it.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Rhode Island.