[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 1]
[House]
[Page 1447]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              PELL GRANTS

  (Mr. DeFAZIO asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. DeFAZIO. Well, here we have some born-again student advocates on 
the Republican side of the aisle. They are criticizing our legislation 
to cut student financial aid interest rates in half. Now, I might 
understand that because they just doubled student financial aid 
interest rates 1 year ago to pay for tax cuts for wealthy investors, so 
I guess they already took a position on that and they don't want to 
have to be forced to vote to provide help to students.
  Then they say, well, no, we want to do Pell Grants. Well, you were in 
charge for 12 years; why didn't you increase Pell Grants during the 12 
years you were in charge? We are going to cut student financial 
interest rates in half and take on the big banks, and we are going to 
increase funding for Pell Grants, something the majority failed to do 
in 12 years.

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