[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 8]
[House]
[Page 10858]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                             STUDENT LOANS

  (Mr. WELCH asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. WELCH. Mr. Speaker, in 2 days, interest rates on student loans 
are going to double from 3.4 to 6.8 percent. It is outrageous, it is 
unnecessary, and it is cruel.
  Across this country, the things that will happen in Vermont are going 
to happen to all our kids and their parents. In Vermont, 20,000 kids 
are going to have their loan's expense go up $1,000. That's when the 
cost of education has gone up 27 percent in the past 5 years. Vermont 
has the seventh highest student loan debt in the country. Sixty-three 
percent of our kids, when they graduate, it's $29,000 that they start 
out owing. We are first when it comes to debt-to-income ratio--82 
percent. It's brutal.
  What is this about? It's about our priorities. In a low interest rate 
environment, government borrowing at 2 percent, we are going to charge 
nearly 7 percent to our kids. That's almost like usury. It is also a 
reflection of our priorities.
  There is a way we could extend this, as we should. Why do we shovel 
taxpayer money to oil companies that have $1 trillion in profits in the 
past 10 years? It is unnecessary.
  Around kitchen tables in Vermont, people are trying to figure out who 
is going to college and how our kids are going to get started.

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