[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 6]
[House]
[Page 8139]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




     EXPIRATION OF INTEREST RATE FOR STAFFORD STUDENT LOAN PROGRAM

  (Mr. COURTNEY asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. COURTNEY. Mr. Speaker, in 29 days, the interest rate for the 
Stafford student loan program is going to increase from 3.4 percent to 
6.8 percent. This will add thousands of dollars of additional debt 
costs for middle class students all across America.
  Yesterday, The Christian Science Monitor reported that Speaker 
Boehner called this issue a phony issue and a distraction from the real 
issues. There is nothing phony about adding thousands of dollars of 
added debt to middle class students. There is nothing phony about the 
Federal Reserve Board report that came out yesterday that showed that 
student loan debt increased by $30 billion in the first quarter of this 
year, surpassing credit card debt. The only thing, frankly, that is a 
pretense around here is the work schedule: in this week, only 1 full 
day, 2 part-time days, and 40 days for the next 5 months.
  It is time for us to get to work in this Chamber and to fix problems 
like the Stafford student loan interest rate.

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