[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 5]
[House]
[Page 7119]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           STUDENT LOAN DEBT

  (Mr. TIERNEY asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. TIERNEY. The student loan debt is a crisis in this country, Mr. 
Speaker. More and more students approach me in the district and post on 
my Facebook about their loan debt.
  I would like to share an excerpt from the stories for those of my 
colleagues who may not fully appreciate why it's so critical that we 
provide our students and families with relief.
  Sharyn Lawler says this:

       Please, Congressman Tierney, we need you and your 
     colleagues to get to the crux of the student loan debt crisis 
     ASAP. Many students end up paying double or triple what they 
     actually borrowed to go to college. This is an outrage and 
     seems out of sync with the original mission of the student 
     loan program. People want to pay back fairly what they 
     borrowed, but the system actually seems rigged to make that 
     impossible.

  Earlier this week, it was reported that the Federal Government will 
earn $51 billion in profit from student loan borrowers this year, which 
exceeds the earnings of the Nation's most profitable companies and is 
roughly equal to the combined income of the four largest U.S. banks by 
assets.
  It's time we stop using the Federal student loan program as a profit 
center for the government. We need to pass legislation that stops the 
doubling of the student loan interest rate by July 1 and turn our 
attention to the long- term solution that will help new borrowers as 
well as the estimated 37 million Americans that have existing student 
loan debt.

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