[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 6]
[House]
[Pages 8733-8734]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                    UNLESS CONGRESS ACTS IN 22 DAYS

  (Mr. COURTNEY asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. COURTNEY. Mr. Speaker, unless Congress acts in the next 22 days, 
the interest rate for the subsidized Stafford student loan program is 
going to increase from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent. Despite this 
approaching deadline, with over 7 million college students waiting for 
an answer, what is the House GOP leadership's response? To send us home 
today for the ninth week of recess since last January. Despite the fact 
that the Senate will be in session next week, and as was reported in 
the press last night, a real bipartisan compromise is going to be 
emerging. But, of course, we won't be able to act on it

[[Page 8734]]

next week because we won't be here. The next time we're on the floor, 
this chart will be down to 11 days until the rate doubles.
  Mr. Speaker, this work schedule by the Republican leadership would 
make Homer Simpson blush. It is time for us to go to work and find a 
compromise that is going to fix this issue for 7 million college 
students waiting for an answer all across America.

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