[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 11]
[Senate]
[Page 15450]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                      FEDERAL PERKINS LOAN PROGRAM

  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, time is running out for the Senate to act 
to save the Federal Perkins Loan Program.
  If we do nothing, this critical program that makes college affordable 
for 30,000 students per year in Illinois will expire at the end of the 
day.
  Perkins was first authorized as part of the National Defense 
Education Act of 1958; and, unlike Federal student loans that we often 
think about, Perkins is a campus-based loan program.
  Participating colleges and universities make low-interest federally 
subsidized loans to students with exceptional financial need.
  The program also offers forgiveness and cancellation options to 
qualifying borrowers.
  The real key to Perkins is the flexibility it offers to schools to 
provide financial aid to students to make up for gaps in costs that 
Pell or other financial aid may not cover.
  If a student has an unexpected change in the financial situation of 
their family, say a parent loses a job, Perkins allows a college or 
university to step in and provide aid to that student to allow them to 
continue their studies.
  The campus-based nature of the program means that students' 
individual financial needs can be met more effectively, and in my home 
State of Illinois, more than 150 institutions of higher education 
provide Perkins loans.
  College presidents and financial aid administrators across Illinois 
have told me that without this key piece to the Federal financial aid 
puzzle, many students may be left behind, unable to afford a college 
education.
  But it does not have to come to that.
  The House sent us a bill passed with overwhelming bipartisan support 
that would extend this worthy program for another year.
  I am disappointed that an attempt to take up and pass this House 
measure to continue the Perkins program was blocked today on the Senate 
floor.
  Despite today's setback, I hope the Senate will still act to extend 
the Federal Perkins Loan Program and help keep college in reach for 
more than half a million students across the country who rely on this 
program.

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