[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 6]
[House]
[Page 8277]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




               LOOMING STUDENT LOAN INTEREST RATE CRISIS

  (Mr. COURTNEY asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. COURTNEY. Mr. Speaker, unless Congress acts in the next 25 days, 
the Stafford student loan interest rate will double from 3.4 percent to 
6.8 percent, adding millions of dollars of additional student loan debt 
to middle class families.
  Unfortunately, the do-nothing House is in session only 2 full days 
this week and 6 full days for the rest of this month. The Republican 
whip announced yesterday that there is no action planned on this issue 
this week.
  It is no wonder that President Obama will once again this week reach 
out to college students all across America to demand action before July 
1. Not only that, he is announcing today a historic agreement with 
colleges and universities to establish a financial aid shopping sheet, 
which will better inform families about the true cost of tuition as a 
way of avoiding debt, and will announce new lower repayment caps for 
the Stafford loans to reduce the burden of high debt.
  One branch of government is doing its job to help with the cost of 
college. It is time for the Republican leadership to do the same.

                          ____________________