[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 7]
[House]
[Page 9394]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        STUDENT LOAN RATE HIKES

  (Ms. FOXX asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Ms. FOXX. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate my colleague from New York 
bringing up the issue of student loan rates. As he very well knows, the 
House has passed a bill to do this, and our problem is with the Senate 
and the President.
  ``Don't double my rate.'' Every day, students are tweeting those 
exact words to their Representatives. Like these students, House 
Republicans see that July 1 is coming, and with it the automatic 
doubling of some Federal student loan interest rates.
  House Republicans don't believe that that rate should double or that 
politicians should be in charge of setting them. Weeks ago, Republicans 
and a few Democrats in the House passed the Smarter Solutions for 
Students Act, which will not only keep student loan interest rates from 
doubling on July 1 but will also remove politics from the equation, as 
well.
  But the House can't do it alone. The Senate must act, and the 
President must lead. Right now, both are failing. In fact, it appears 
President Obama has completely backed down from defending his original 
proposal which, like our House bill, offered a permanent solution to 
the problem. The President is letting the opportunity to build on 
common ground slip by. Concerned students should ask him why.

                          ____________________