[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 11]
[House]
[Pages 15862-15869]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1815
                              FUTURE FORUM

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. LaHood). Under the Speaker's announced 
policy of January 6, 2015, the gentleman from California (Mr. Swalwell) 
is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.
  Mr. SWALWELL of California. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to kick off the 
Future Forum Special Order hour. Today we will be bringing attention, 
once again, to the issue of college affordability and student loan 
debt. We also have a few surprises in store today, as I will be joined 
by my Future Forum colleagues.
  I first want to report that just earlier this week, on Monday, the 
Future Forum, which is a group of about 16 to 17 of the youngest 
members in our caucus, went out to Seattle. Congressman Kilmer, who 
represents the Seattle area, was joined by myself and Ruben Gallego of 
the Phoenix, Arizona, area.
  We went across the Seattle area. We talked to college students, 
community college students, college graduates, a millennial workforce, 
and also folks in the tech sector in Seattle.
  We went to the University of Washington Tacoma and met with veterans. 
We went to the University of Puget Sound and talked to students. We 
went to an SEIU training center and talked to the next generation of 
their workforce.
  We were also able to go to Amazon. We went to amazon.com and had a 
town hall there with their millennial workforce, and we were able to 
listen to them and their concerns about the future.
  We heard a common thread through all of these diverse groups, 
America's largest generation, millennials, 80 million people. They are 
concerned about their future.
  They are concerned about their ability to afford and have access to 
go to college. They are concerned about how much it is going to cost 
them when they get out and the student loan debt that they are going to 
be burdened with.
  It was another successful Future Forum trip. It was the eighth one we 
have taken this year, ranging from New York, Boston, New Hampshire, 
Phoenix, Washington, D.C., San Francisco, Los Angeles, and now Seattle.
  I encourage anyone watching to engage with us on Twitter. I will be a 
part of the conversation. I will read and respond to any questions as 
we go along.
  First, today I am joined by a colleague of mine, a Future Forum 
member from the Dallas/Fort Worth area, Congressman Marc Veasey.
  Congressman, we are encouraging a conversation around these issues at 
#futureforum.
  I have been to the Dallas/Fort Worth area. I have seen the way you 
engage with young people in your district.
  I want to know just what are you hearing out there about your 
constituents and their ability to go to college, your constituents and 
their ability to pay for college? And, once they get out, how is 
student loan debt affecting their opportunities?
  Mr. VEASEY. Congressman Swalwell, thank you very much. I really 
appreciate your leadership on Future Forum and bringing up important 
issues like student debt. It is a real issue that so many of our young 
people struggle with when they graduate from college.
  In one of the articles that I was reading about student debt, a 
national magazine put some Instagram photos up of young people and the 
problems and the issues that they have with student debt. Some of the 
kids put up some really creative things.
  One of the graduating students, on their graduating hat, instead of 
``Game of Thrones,'' it said ``Game of Loans.'' Another sign that I saw 
at one of the college graduations said, ``I will soon be joining 
millions of other young people that are graduating from college, and I 
will be consumed with thousands of dollars in debt.''
  But while these Instagram photos are cute and funny and I am sure are 
a way for young people to take their minds off of what is going to be 
facing them in thousands of dollars of debt, we know that this is a 
very serious issue.
  Our young people that are graduating from college are putting off 
buying a house. They are putting off buying that new car. Those sorts 
of things play a role in how well our economy does.
  And I think, more importantly, you hear a lot of young people that 
are graduating from college saying that they are putting off starting a 
family.
  That is one of the most important things that we do as young people 
as we graduate from college and make our way into the world, is that we 
start that next generation.
  And in order for us to start that next generation with confidence, 
kids need to know that when they graduate from college, they are not 
going to be burdened with all of this debt.
  We know that college is becoming less and less affordable each day, 
and it negatively impacts the lives of thousands of Americans across 
our great Nation, including many of the constituents that I represent 
in the Dallas/Fort Worth area.
  Right now we have about 40 million young people in this country that 
have over $1.3 trillion in debt.

[[Page 15863]]

  In the State of Texas, the average debt per student is over $25,000, 
with over 70 percent of bachelor's degree recipients graduating with a 
student loan. About 16 percent of students in Texas have defaulted on 
their loans. These numbers can easily create an economic crisis for an 
entire generation.
  While the cost of higher education continues to rise, grants are not 
going up on the same per-student basis. We have seen the Federal Pell 
Grant funding levels remain stagnant despite House Democrats urging 
Republicans to do something, to step in and help these kids, and let's 
increase Pell Grant funding levels. But we have seen absolutely no 
action from the Republicans on this.
  Mr. Speaker and Congressman Swalwell, I think it is important that we 
do work together on commonsense proposals that provide grants to the 
most needy and to make Federal loans affordable so that young people 
can obtain a degree, contribute to our economy, and keep our country 
going strong without the burden of insurmountable student debt.
  Mr. SWALWELL of California. Congressman Veasey, part of what the 
Future Forum has tried to express across the country to young people 
has been, first, our members, we understand you, we hear you, because 
we know the struggle you have gone through.
  Personally, I have over $100,000 today in student loan debt. Half of 
my college was paid through an athletic scholarship, and I still had 
that much student loan debt that I racked up because of tuition going 
up every single year.
  Could you tell us just a little bit about your personal story or 
those of any family members or friends and how you have personally seen 
this debt affecting people.
  Mr. VEASEY. Absolutely. When I graduated from college, paying back my 
student loans was very, very difficult. And I will tell you that one of 
the things that I lucked into when I was still in my twenties was that 
I became a congressional aide. I worked for a Member of Congress.
  And there was a student loan program for young people that worked on 
Capitol Hill for them to be able to have some of their student loan 
debt repaid. Had it not been for that, I don't know what I would have 
done because the student debt was eating into my discretionary income.
  Again, we want young people to contribute to our economy. We want 
young people to go and buy that car that they couldn't afford in 
college. We want young people to start a family, buy a home.
  I mean, the American Dream is being able to start a family and buy 
that home and be able to raise your kids in that home and be able to 
provide for your family.
  But, unfortunately, more and more of our young people are saying, 
``You know what. I am going to put off getting married. I am going to 
put off buying that home. I am going to put off putting money into our 
local economy. I am going to not buy so much for Christmas for my 
siblings and my parents and other people. I can't afford to because I 
have thousands and thousands of dollars' worth of student debt.''
  We have to figure out some way to do something about this, 
Representative Swalwell, or we are going to have an entire generation 
of young people that just has absolutely nowhere to turn.
  Mr. SWALWELL of California. You know what was interesting? We have 
had these conversations with people.
  A story I will never forget: We were in the Boston area, and we went 
to Thermo Fisher. We had this town hall with about 200 young people at 
their workforce, talking to us about student loan debt. I was with 
Congressman Moulton.
  Once we started getting into the back-and-forth of the questions with 
the participants, a woman in the back who was around 55, 60 years old 
raised her hand and said kind of jokingly, ``You know, I know I am not 
supposed to be here. This is a millennial town hall.'' And we told her, 
``No. No. It is a mindset. It is not an age.''
  But she said, ``I think you are missing the fact that student loan 
debt doesn't just affect millennials,'' and she told a story about her 
daughter who had gone to college, which is also a part of that American 
Dream where we want our young people to go to college, educate 
themselves.
  But she said that she has found that her daughter has come home from 
college, has over $30,000 in student loan debt and, because of that 
debt, is not able to even rent near where she works. So what her 
daughter has done is she has come back home. We are becoming the 
boomerang generation.
  So that reinforced for me that this issue affects the 40 million 
millennials that you talked about. But, actually, it is a family 
matter. It affects everyone in the household.
  Have you heard stories like that or seen examples of that?
  Mr. VEASEY. Yes. I have absolutely heard so many stories like that.
  And it is really interesting. I think, when we are all in our 
twenties, we never think that we are going to get older.
  I have been working in politics now since I have been in my twenties, 
starting off as a congressional aide and spending 8 years in Texas 
State Legislature and now as a Member of Congress.
  When you meet kids that are in their teens, kids that are in their 
twenties, they never ask you about Social Security. They don't ask you 
much about what is going on with the national defense. And, for years, 
I can tell you that young people in their teens and twenties never 
asked me a lot of questions, as an elected official, about many of the 
issues that affect our country.
  Most of the questions that I would get from individuals were usually 
from people that were baby boomers and older that were concerned about 
Social Security, concerned about the high cost of food or goods or 
whatever it may happen to be.
  But let me tell you something. For young people in this country, this 
issue is getting their attention, not being able to pay back their 
student debt.
  And I can tell you that, when I am at townhall meetings, when I am 
out doing the different events throughout the Dallas/Fort Worth 
metroplex, the one issue that young people come to me about--and I know 
that, if someone is in their twenties or early thirties and they are 
approaching me about an issue, it is probably going to be about student 
debt. It has really galvanized them like I have never seen before.
  Again, they are going to social media like some of the examples that 
I have talked with you about earlier. They are going to social media. 
They are going to Instagram and Facebook, talking about student debt, 
begging the Congress to do something about providing more grants.
  Again, we want our country to be well-educated. That is how we are 
going to be able to compete with the rest of the world.
  But guess what. More and more young people are hearing, you know, 
``Why go to college? Why go to college and be burdened with student 
debt?''
  And guess what. If more and more young people hear that, it is going 
to make us less competitive in the world at a time where we need to be 
more competitive in all sectors, whether it is in technology, whether 
it is in manufacturing. We need an educated workforce.
  I can tell you that young people are being discouraged because of a 
lack of action specifically, really, by Republicans in Congress. So we 
have to keep raising this issue.
  Mr. SWALWELL of California. Again, I appreciate you being with us 
today, Congressman Veasey of Texas.
  You are right. It is about solutions and who is acting. I think we 
all would welcome the bipartisan approach to this. But right now the 
silence is deafening, and it is affecting a whole generation that is 
just stuck in financial quicksand.
  One of the solutions that the Future Forum has put out there is this 
idea: Hey, you can refinance an auto loan. You can refinance your home 
loan. Why shouldn't our students who are in this financial quicksand be 
able to refinance their student loans at the lowest

[[Page 15864]]

available rate? We have got legislation on that, and I hope it becomes 
bipartisan legislation. But I agree with you on a call to action on 
this.
  Mr. VEASEY. Thank you, Representative Swalwell. I appreciate that.
  Mr. SWALWELL of California. Well, the Future Forum is a group that 
has evolved since April, and we are quite interested in engaging with 
millennials.
  Again, I would invite people tonight to engage with us on 
#futureforum, and we will take questions.
  But this idea of reaching out to a generation that is not necessarily 
yet engaged in new, innovative ways is older than the Future Forum. It 
actually started about 10 years ago.
  And today we have a little bit of a surprise for our Future Forum 
followers. We are going to welcome some of the original members of the 
Future Forum who 10 years ago on this House floor redefined what it 
meant to reach out and talk to the next generation of leaders.
  So it is my honor, it is my privilege, to first welcome Congressman 
Tim Ryan of Ohio. Tim said it best in 2005, 10 years ago, when he led 
the 30-Something Working Group and they took questions on this House 
floor, as we take them now from Twitter. Congressman Ryan took them via 
email.
  He said, ``Being the 30-Something Group, we are trying to take our 
communications to the next level, trying to reach out to the American 
people, because we have said for quite some time that if we are going 
to solve problems in this country, that we have to engage the best and 
brightest talent that is out in the country in order to do this.''

                              {time}  1830

  Does that sound familiar to the gentleman from Ohio?
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. I don't remember that, but that sounds like 
something I would have said. That is great.
  Well, thank you. This is bringing back a lot of memories. I look at 
some of our friends that staff the House of Representatives, and we had 
a lot of long nights where we would come to the House floor sometimes 
once or twice in an evening back in 2003, 2004, 2005, and then going 
into 2006 and really used the House floor. There wasn't Twitter back 
then, and so a lot has changed with the ability to communicate and 
organize.
  We had key issues at that point that we were working on with Debbie 
Wasserman Schultz, Congressman Kendrick Meek from Miami. We were kind 
of the three Members that would come in here every night. It helped us 
communicate with not just young people who may or may not be watching 
C-SPAN, because there weren't a lot of them, but we were on later at 
night, and so we did get some college students who were paying 
attention to what was going on. We were also talking to their parents, 
and we were also talking to their grandparents.
  I think what you guys are doing now with the Future Forum is having a 
conversation with everyone about what the future needs to look like. I 
think that is critically important. You talk about student loans, 
student debt, and all the rest. I think one issue, too, that we are 
talking about that doesn't get a whole lot of coverage is how we create 
an economy for these young people to go into and what that looks like. 
I believe that there is an opportunity for us to kind of bring the 
whole thing together.
  We talk a lot about the environment because we are concerned with 
global warming and what direction we are going in as a country. If you 
look at places like Iowa and other places, you will see that they have 
25 or 30 percent of their energy coming from renewable sources.
  I represent a district in northeast Ohio, heavily manufacturing, lost 
thousands and thousands of manufacturing jobs over the last couple of 
decades. When I look at what we need to do to reduce our carbon 
footprint, to move away from fossil fuels, and to move into a more 
renewable economy, to me, wind and solar are an opportunity to do that. 
But it is also an opportunity for us to bring manufacturing back.
  So not everyone is going to be a Ph.D. and not everyone is going to 
be a STEM graduate, but if we can get enough of those graduates to 
figure out how we move the country forward, how we manufacture things 
again here in the United States, when you think about a windmill that 
consists of 8,000 component parts, hundreds of tons of steel, 
gearshifts, bearings, hydraulics, all kinds of component parts that 
need to be fabricated, to me, if we are going to resuscitate 
manufacturing in the United States, moving into a renewable economy 
with wind and solar and all the component parts it entails is an 
opportunity for us to re-create the middle class.
  So when we talk about what the future is, yeah, maybe the college 
students are going to be graduating from the STEM college and they may 
be engineers, but we have got to deal with the grid. We have got to 
deal with battery storage, and we have got to do research and 
development to figure out how to do it, how to store the energy and all 
the rest, but we also need to resuscitate manufacturing.
  Mr. SWALWELL of California. What colleges do you have in your 
district?
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. In my district, I have three. We have Youngstown 
State University, which had the first STEM college in the entire State 
of Ohio, and Akron University, which does a ton of work converting. It 
used to be the rubber capital of the world. Now they are doing 
polymers, which has a really bright future as well. And we have Kent 
State University, which is focused on liquid crystal. So we have these 
universities.
  But, to me, at the end of the day, if you don't get into 
manufacturing, it needs to become a bigger and bigger part to where we 
are exporting our products, high-end, high-end manufacturing, advanced 
manufacturing, and additive manufacturing to the rest of the world. We 
know we are going to lose some manufacturing, of course, to the lower 
cost countries, which is a natural evolution of the global economy. The 
Future Forum and what you are talking about has to be about and is 
about how we create an economy for these young people, and you are in 
the process of doing that.
  Mr. SWALWELL of California. So, in your district, say Youngstown, or 
my district, Cal State, East Bay, what I have found talking to young 
people, when we talk about this renewable economy and young people hear 
that, we are actually in this Congress, under Republican leadership 
slashing the amount of money we invest in renewables and increasing the 
amount that we spend on fossil fuels, I find that young people, their 
reaction is: Wait. What? You guys, the rest of the world is going 
forward in this renewable economy. Germany has 30 percent of its energy 
from renewables, and the United States is still stuck around 10 to 11 
percent?
  I found it generationally, Republicans and Democrats, millennials, 
they don't understand why we are kind of stuck in the mud on this 
issue. I don't know what you have heard.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Definitely in agreement across generations, across 
party lines. Being young, you kind of understand it. I think if we can 
move the conversation away from kind of the dark, the world is going to 
end, globalization, global warming talk, and more into, okay, how do we 
become sustainable and what is the path forward, and how is that going 
to benefit everyone moving forward--and I am a kind of an all-of-the-
above guy. I think natural gas can be a transition for us, and I think 
there are a lot of opportunities to do that.
  I will tell you this, and I don't want to get into a deep discussion 
because a lot of people are not in agreement on this. But when you look 
at the hydraulic fracturing which allowed a lot of the natural gas to 
come up and for us to access it, which is fairly controversial in some 
quarters, but the technology was a partnership between the Department 
of Energy and the private sector for 30 years, starting in the Carter 
administration, that allowed us to be able to go in and then access 
this natural gas that is there.
  The same concept as what you were talking about is putting the money

[[Page 15865]]

into the renewables, driving the costs down, having the tax credits in 
place over a long-term period so that we can bring the costs down and 
incentivize some investments. At the end of the day, that is how you 
move forward with creating new sectors of the economy.
  I see the gentleman from Georgia, and I thought he was just hanging 
on every word I was saying here, and you were so enthralled, and yet 
you were here to file a rule.
  Mr. WOODALL. I say to my friend, you had me at all of the above. You 
had me at American manufacturing. You had me at jobs for the next 
generation, and you had me at looking forward instead of backwards, not 
doom and gloom, but how we can work together to solve problems.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Look at what just happened here on the House floor.
  Mr. SWALWELL of California. We will talk. We will send over some 
ideas, and we will take some of yours.
  Mr. WOODALL. I will look forward to that.
  Mr. SWALWELL of California. Congressman Ryan, one of my favorite 
things to do in the spirit of what you and Congresswoman Wasserman 
Schultz did is you went out and engaged people in new, inventive ways. 
We do what is called a word cloud. We go to these townhalls, and they 
can text in answers to questions we pose. One that we often ask them 
is: What would you spend your money on if you had more money at the end 
of the month that wasn't going to student loans? You can see in the 
word cloud here, which was taken from a recent event, it ranges from 
rent, house, buy a house, groceries, mortgage, and savings.
  Have you heard this out in Ohio?
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Same deal, and that is what every one of those 
words references is a stronger economy because you have people who are 
putting money in buying a car or renting a house or buying a house or 
doing any one of these things. And there they are. There they are.
  Mr. SWALWELL of California. I have the privilege of having both of 
you on the floor now, and you can see it is the 10-year reunion of the 
30-Somethings. The two of you really charted the path forward for us to 
do this as the Future Forum.
  We are now joined by the gentlewoman from Florida, Congresswoman 
Debbie Wasserman Schultz.
  I went back and I saw many of the different, inventive, and creative 
ways that you guys engaged our young people. I was hoping you could 
just talk about back then, because some of the issues you talked 
about--rising gas prices at the time, the war in Iraq, and 
privatization of Social Security--you brought attention on this House 
floor of these issues to the next generation. Maybe you could just talk 
about how you did that and then how we can do that today.
  Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Absolutely. I thank the gentleman from 
California for yielding, and I say to my friend from Ohio that it is 
good to get the band back together.
  It is really incredible that it has been 10 years. I don't really 
want to think about the birthday that I just had and where that puts 
me. I guess a few years after we started the 30-Something Working Group 
at least I and our former colleague Kendrick Meek from Florida passed 
the status of being 30-something, and we were 30-somethings in spirit 
while we were doing that for a little while.
  I am a little longer past being a 30-something now, but it is 
absolutely critical that we have an opportunity now to pass the torch, 
Mr. Ryan, to the next generation of 30-somethings who are focused on 
making sure that, as we go from generation to generation, as Democrats, 
we are focused on making sure about those cornerstones of a middle 
class life that we talked about 10 years ago, making sure that you 
don't have to choose between buying your groceries or filling your gas 
tank so you can get to work, which then, if you can't, would cause you 
not to be able to afford your groceries.
  Now, 10 years later, Mr. Swalwell--I had young children back then. 
Mr. Ryan was single, and now he has young children. My twins are 
actually 2 years from going to college, so the student debt crisis that 
has been looming and has existed and has overly burdened so many 
Americans is now something that my family has trepidation about. So it 
is incredibly timely that we relaunch this working group and make sure 
that the issues that are important to that next generation get the 
attention and the focus on the floor of the United States House of 
Representatives.
  Mr. SWALWELL of California. We talk a lot about the next generation, 
and Congressman Ryan and I were talking about how this affects 
millennials--and I invite my colleague from New York (Mr. Jeffries) to 
take the other podium.
  I don't know if you have heard this in your district, but this issue 
of college access and affordability is actually a family matter. We 
just got a tweet from @SKAU61, and she said that she wants to get a BA 
in accounting, and at 53 she can't afford to do it. So we are hearing 
that it is multigenerational, this access.
  Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. SWALWELL of California. I yield to the gentlewoman from Florida.
  Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. In response to your question, whether I have 
heard this in my district, absolutely. The average debt that an 
individual carries in student loan debt is about $29,000. That is 
crushing debt for years to be burdened with. Even President Obama, not 
long prior to becoming President, he and the First Lady had both talked 
about how they only just had paid off their student loan debt just 
before he took office.
  Imagine into your not even late fifties, late forties, still paying 
off your debt from college and postgraduate school. It is just 
outrageous. Yet Republicans--and let's make sure that we zero in on 
brass tacks here--Republicans have consistently denied Americans the 
opportunity to reform the student loan program so that we can ensure 
that when they are paid a salary that it is in line with how much they 
have to actually pay back out of their monthly paycheck to actually 
make sure that they can make ends meet.
  Mr. SWALWELL of California. Reclaiming my time, I don't know if 
either Mr. Ryan or Mr. Jeffries has heard constituent casework like 
this, but we have constituents in our district who are having their 
Social Security checks garnished because of student loan debt.
  So I yield to Mr. Ryan or Mr. Jeffries, if you heard about this 
multigenerational challenge.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. I feel like we are here to provide a little 
historical context. So when we, back in the day, and that was 2003, 
2004, 2005, 2006, before the Democrats took over the House a few years 
back, we had a student loan system that the banks would do the loans, 
and the rates were 7, 8, and 9 percent. Then, the Federal Government 
would back the loan if someone defaulted. So I loan you $100, and if 
you default, the gentleman from California will pay me. What a great 
business to be in. No lose. Right? So they were covered, regardless. We 
came in and made some serious reforms to limit the amount of monthly 
payments and for how many years if you are in the public service.

                              {time}  1845

  So we made some reforms that I think were really, really important. 
But as the gentlewoman from Florida said, that is the difference. We 
are aggressively trying to pursue ways of fixing the problem, and if we 
do a piece, we come back and then we try to get to the next piece. In 
the last few years since 2010, we keep running into a brick wall where 
we are not getting the kind of cooperation.
  But these are the kind of things that the government is supposed to 
do. I think we are pretty clear about that. That is why it is 
important, as Debbie said, for you to keep coming out here night in and 
night out, because every night somebody is listening to you, some 
nights more than others. Some nights we weren't sure if anyone was 
listening.
  But somebody is listening. You have to just keep pounding and 
pounding

[[Page 15866]]

and pounding that message because this is what is best for the economy, 
for families, and everyone else that really is going to make a 
difference. So it is good you are out here pounding away.
  Mr. JEFFRIES. I thank the distinguished gentleman, first, from 
California for his leadership and for all that you have done to make 
sure that issues of importance to the next generation of Americans, 
such as the one that we are discussing here today, get prominence on 
the House floor, this great vehicle for communicating to the American 
people, and, of course, to be here with the still young pioneers of 
this wonderful effort, Congresswoman Wasserman Schultz and Congressman 
Ryan. It is just a great honor.
  Clearly, we have a student loan debt crisis that commands the 
attention of the American people and should command the attention of 
people here in the House of Representatives and on the other side of 
the Capitol, but does not always do so, which is why communicating the 
urgency of the situation is so significant, just the notion.
  I have got constituents just shocked by the fact that, collectively, 
we have got over $1 trillion of student loan debt here in America. That 
is a very real number in terms of its implications, as you pointed out, 
Congressman Swalwell, for the capacity of younger Americans to robustly 
pursue the American Dream.
  When you are saddled with that level of debt burden, it makes it far 
more difficult to start a family, far more difficult to purchase a 
home, far more difficult to be part of the next generation of great 
American entrepreneurs and innovators, because you are less likely to 
take a risk if you have got this monthly student loan bill that you are 
unsure as to how you would pay if you were to take some time off to 
start a business, to invent the next Google or Facebook or Twitter.
  And so this is really an issue of great significance to us, as 
Americans. And it is a shame. I will make this last observation.
  I sat on the Budget Committee for the previous 2 years in the 113th 
Congress, and the same is the case this year, that Republicans continue 
to put forth a budget that is not designed to alleviate the problem of 
higher education affordability. It is designed to make the problem 
worse.
  It will cut over $220 billion over a 10-year period in Federal 
Government assistance in a variety of ways to younger Americans who are 
struggling to get a college education and pursue the American Dream.
  That is something that we have got to be able to address moving 
forward or move in a different direction in terms of who the American 
people send to this Congress to do their business.
  Mr. SWALWELL of California. I am wondering, especially for our 
pioneers here tonight, if it would surprise you to hear that, since 
2004, when you started this effort, student loan debt has increased 
from $346 million collectively for the country to the $1.2 trillion 
that it is today. That is an increase of 235 percent.
  What has happened or what hasn't happened?
  Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Well, what hasn't happened is a focus in a 
bipartisan way on making sure that we make college affordability a top 
priority.
  I will tell you that I know my husband and I are at the intersection 
in our family of wanting to make sure that, as we send our twins, two 
at once, off to college 2 years from now, we will be able to, one, be 
able to supplement as much as possible their college education so that, 
knowing what we know about the potential for them to have that debt 
burden when they graduate, we can relieve that possibility, and trying 
to figure out how the heck we are going to add that double-whammy 
expense when they start college and at the same time being pretty 
panicked about how much debt they will have to go in themselves if we 
can't really make sure--and families all across--less about me and more 
about the sort of average middle class family that is trying to make 
sure that they can make ends meet for their whole family and make sure 
that they can send their kids off to start their lives, which is why 
President Obama and congressional Democrats have proposed that the 
first 2 years of college be free.
  I will tell you that I have a lot of folks at home in south Florida 
who have said to me, ``You know, if I only had to worry about my kid's 
junior and senior year and how we were going to pay for that and we 
knew that at least they could get an AA degree.''
  Over 100 years ago, when we established free universal access to 
public education in elementary grades and eventually secondary grades, 
no one would question. That was considered controversial back then. No 
one today would consider universal free public education, except maybe 
some of our friends on the other side of the aisle. Actually, I take 
that back. But you wouldn't question, you wouldn't think, that 
universal access to public education should be free.
  We are at the point now in the 21st century where there shouldn't be 
any question that the first 2 years of college should be free, and we 
need our colleagues on the other side of the aisle to join us in that.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. And part of this is not just the first 2 years of 
college free, but Democrats are also pushing initiatives like how do 
you streamline and get high school kids into community college classes 
early while they are still in high school to start taking and reducing 
some of those costs.
  We have programs in Canton at Stark State where you can get 13 credit 
hours towards a welding certificate. Thirteen of 30 hours can be done 
before you even graduate from high school. So that reduces and it is 
free because it is part of your high school public education. So now 
you are already starting.
  So it is not just about reducing student loans and reducing debt and 
Pell Grants and streamlining the first 2 years. But we also, I think, 
have an obligation to streamline the current system that is K-12 or K-
14 and make sure we narrow that down.
  I have got to step out, but I just want to say thank you. You have 
got another Irish guy here to carry the flag.
  Mr. SWALWELL of California. Another Floridian, too.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Another Floridian. I do want to say just keep 
pounding away. This is a great way to communicate. You guys are doing 
it. We have to get more and more from your classes to be up here. So 
keep up the good work. And I am out.
  Mr. SWALWELL of California. I am glad this reunion happened. You 
inspire us to continue going forward.
  I want to ask the gentleman from New York--I have been to Manhattan. 
It reminds me a lot--Manhattan and Brooklyn and Queens and Harlem--
reminds me a lot of what we see in Silicon Valley and San Francisco, 
just the young entrepreneurial minds.
  But when we go to these startup spaces or these incubator hubs, I 
constantly hear how much student loan debt affects their ability to 
invest in themselves and their businesses, and we are finding that our 
generation is the least entrepreneurial generation America has ever 
known at our time.
  I am wondering if you have heard stories about that and how it is 
limiting investment.
  Mr. JEFFRIES. That is absolutely correct. I think what we have to do 
is really work on changing the equation to facilitate the great minds 
that we have got in this current generation of younger Americans to be 
able to go out and be innovators and entrepreneurial in the context of 
a vastly changing economy as well as a changing dynamic in terms of the 
affordability of college education.
  I am troubled by the fact, one, if you look at the productivity of 
the American worker, what we have seen, of course, since the early 
1970s is that it has increased dramatically, in excess of 275 percent 
in terms of American worker productivity.
  At the same time, wages during that period from the early 1970s to 
the present have remained largely stagnant, less than 10 percent. So 
the equation for the American worker has changed.
  So what we have is that we have got younger Americans entering into a

[[Page 15867]]

workforce where the fundamental equation in terms of their compensation 
has changed dramatically for the worse, the cost of a college education 
has increased, the amount of financial assistance relative to the cost 
of that college education has remained stagnant, if not declined in 
real dollars, and the expectation in terms of the student debt loan 
burden one is expected to shoulder upon graduation has exploded 
exponentially.
  You add all those things together and it is no surprise that you are 
going to find yourself in a situation where people don't have the same 
capability of being entrepreneurial as prior generations.
  FDR, of course, brought forth the New Deal. What we need for this 
current generation of Americans is just a fairer deal in the context of 
giving them the same opportunities to robustly pursue the American 
Dream, start great companies, innovate as prior generations, so we can 
continue to be great.
  I would also note that downtown Brooklyn, interestingly enough, which 
I represent in the wonderful Eighth Congressional District----
  Mr. SWALWELL of California. Is that where Silicon Alley is?
  Mr. JEFFRIES. That is part of Silicon Alley. I am so glad that you 
are familiar with our East Coast lingo.
  But it also has more college students in downtown Brooklyn than 
Boston and Cambridge combined. So there has been a great number of 
young people who have come to Brooklyn who are contributing to our 
fantastic innovation culture, but who are struggling with the 
fundamentals of today's economy and higher education structure that is 
working against them.
  That is why we are here on the floor of the House of Representatives 
fighting to change that.
  Mr. SWALWELL of California. Here on the floor any Californian would 
be nervous when he or she is outnumbered by Floridians.
  We are joined by the gentleman from Florida who represents West Palm 
Beach, Jupiter/Martin County area.
  What are you hearing in your district about student loan debt?
  Mr. MURPHY of Florida. First of all, I want to thank the gentleman 
from California for putting this together and, really, your leadership. 
You have been at this for years now, talking to other Members of 
Congress on both sides of the aisle, reminding them about what a 
critical issue this is.
  Whether I am talking to constituents in my district throughout the 
State of Florida or people here in the House, we have to do more to 
help more people get access to quality and affordable education at all 
levels, but certainly higher education.
  When you look at what I would argue is one of the biggest problems in 
our country right now--and that is the disappearing middle class and 
this growing divide we have in our country--unfortunately or 
fortunately, depending on how you look at it, as economies continue to 
evolve and progress, education becomes more and more of a critical 
component of that.
  Yet, you look at the policies and you look at really what is holding 
so many people back, just listening to the gentleman from New York here 
talking about that lack of opportunity and the debt that is holding so 
many people back from taking that risk to go ahead and become that 
entrepreneur, to be that innovative spirit that made America so great 
because they might have $100,000 of debt, they might have a family, 
they might have some kids, and they are so concerned about this debt, 
they don't want to take that risk.
  That is not what America is about. America is about taking that risk 
with having education to do it and then turning it into something 
great. And understanding that not every risk is going to always pay 
off, but you have to have that background, that education, to get you 
there.
  And if you are saddled with hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt 
and overly complex methods to repay them, not being able to refinance, 
et cetera, then you have a problem.
  Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. MURPHY of Florida. I yield to the gentlewoman from Florida.
  Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Because I want to engage as we used to do. And 
I know that you do this as well. But I just want to follow up on what 
you just said because the gentleman from California posed the question 
and stated the fact that millennials today really aren't starting new 
businesses. You would think--and we envision them to be the start-up 
generation. They are living in a start-up era, but, yet, they can't see 
it.
  To use the vernacular of the gentleman of Florida, Congressman Meeks, 
when we were throwing things around on the House floor 10 years ago, 
let's put the cookie on the bottom shelf here.
  If, as you just said, they are saddled with the burden of significant 
debt coming out of college when they get a degree, it is very difficult 
for them to see a pathway to develop that small business, to envision 
being a pioneer of the next great industry.
  So we are literally saddling them with a heavy burden as they leave 
what is supposed to be the jumping-off point for the next phase of 
their lives. We are supposed to be passing them the baton so that they 
can move America forward. It is just not fair. It is not right. And our 
friends on the other side of the aisle are part of the problem.
  Mr. SWALWELL of California. Millennials are very collaborative. They 
are, I would believe, a problem-solving generation.
  What is so frustrating when we talk to them at college campuses or at 
their work sites is they ask, ``Well, what are you doing about it?'' 
And I believe my colleagues here would be happy, thrilled, to work with 
our colleagues across the aisle on solutions on this.
  But I am just curious. Do you know how many bills we voted on to 
address student loan debt this Congress? Zero. Zero bills.

                              {time}  1900

  At the end of the day, it is not just the least entrepreneurial. We 
are the least home owning. We are more likely to delay starting a 
family by about 5 years. So everything that the generation before us 
had, we are delaying: buying a home, starting a family, starting a 
business. As the gentleman from New York pointed out, it is affecting 
the economy.
  Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. I wanted to share my own personal story very 
briefly.
  You know, I happened to get married fairly young at 24 years old. 
Graduating from a public university, the University of Florida, without 
debt, the progress I was able to make at the beginning of my adult 
life, at the beginning of my professional life, enabled me to have a 
much longer ramp and see many more possibilities because I didn't have 
that debt.
  My husband and I were able to buy our first house right after we got 
married, and we have been able to make sure that we can make choices 
that will maximize our opportunities to ensure that our children, when 
we had them and now are raising them, have opportunities.
  It is so sad that the millennial generation really doesn't see it, 
doesn't believe it, and that is because there is obstacle after 
obstacle being thrown in their way right from the start of their most 
formative years.
  Mr. SWALWELL of California. On an issue you would never imagine to be 
partisan.
  Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Unbelievable.
  Mr. SWALWELL of California. Well, I thank the gentlewoman from 
Florida for joining us. I hope to see her back.
  Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Thank you.
  Mr. SWALWELL of California. Mr. Speaker, I don't know if the 
gentleman from New York heard, but in 2012, the New York Fed reported 
that for the first time in a decade, 30-year-old student borrowers were 
less likely to take out a home mortgage than other young people.
  Are you seeing in the New York area or hearing from your constituents 
about how student loan debt is affecting their ability to buy a house?
  I yield to the gentleman from New York.

[[Page 15868]]


  Mr. JEFFRIES. Mr. Speaker, that is absolutely the case. Certainly in 
Brooklyn, which has become now an attractive place for so many people 
to reside, not just from the city, the region, all across the country 
and, indeed, the world, yet many of the young people who have moved to 
Brooklyn who are starting a life in Brooklyn are renting in Brooklyn. 
They are unable to purchase a home.
  Some of that has to do with the significant appreciation in home 
value that we have witnessed over the last decade, but a lot of that 
has to do with the fact that they can't see their way to either a 
downpayment on a home or carrying a monthly mortgage, given the student 
loan debt burden that they have been forced to shoulder as a result of 
the structure that has been put in place in terms of higher education 
in America.
  You made an important observation earlier in referencing the 
President's plan for free community college education. If we can just 
dwell there for a second, what is important to note is it used to be 
the case, for prior generations who started the great American middle 
class after helping to liberate the world coming back home to America 
after World War II, that if you just had a high school diploma, for 
many individuals, that was a pathway into the middle class. That is no 
longer the case in today's 21st century economy.
  You can get a high school diploma at a high-quality public school for 
free without any debt. So, at that point, as you entered into the 
workforce, you could think about starting a family, purchasing a home, 
and doing other things consistent with what it means to be part of the 
great American middle class. That is no longer the case. A high school 
diploma is not a pathway into the middle class. You have got to at 
least go to college, if not get a graduate degree.
  Given the high cost of a college education, it has changed the 
equation for younger Americans in terms of their entry into the middle 
class. That is why looking at bold proposals, such as dramatically 
reducing, if not eliminating, the cost of public higher education at 
the community college level, if not beyond, is something that we have 
got to put front and center on the agenda here in the House of 
Representatives.
  Mr. MURPHY of Florida. Mr. Speaker, adding on to what the gentleman 
from New York said, not only should we be looking at those sorts of 
proposals, but we should be looking at some of the existing programs we 
have, like Pell grants. The numbers that we have been talking about, 
this skyrocketing cost of education has increased 200-some percent over 
the last decade. That is unsustainable.
  Yet look at what Pell grants have done. The maximum Pell grant has 
not gone up ratably in the same amount of time. So let's talk about 
expanding these programs.
  I think we need to really change the dynamic of the conversation to 
your point where it is really about return on investment. You know, we 
need to look at this from a business perspective: What is the best ROI 
of taxpayer money?
  I look at some of the bills that we have all worked on together here. 
One bill that comes to mind is called the SAVE Act. It is a bill where 
we identified $479 billion of wasteful, duplicative, fraudulent 
government spending. Let's start implementing and start finding those 
savings and putting that into education, ensuring that that return on 
investment for taxpayer money is truly there. We all know a dollar 
spent on education is going to come back in droves for future 
generations in this economy.
  Mr. SWALWELL of California. Congressman Murphy, your district, the 
State of Florida, has a lot of veterans. People always ask: What is the 
biggest surprise you have found since going to Congress?
  I don't know if you guys have had that question posed to you.
  For me, the biggest surprise I have found since coming to Congress is 
just how poorly our veterans have been treated. Something that is even 
more surprising, which I found doing these Future Forum tours--I don't 
know if you have heard about this--but a GI Bill doesn't even cover the 
full cost of college anymore.
  So the veterans who have served our country, fought abroad, risked 
their lives, saw their friends and sometimes family members killed, 
when they come back home, the GI Bill can't even get them all the way 
through college. That is how expensive college has become, and we can't 
even take care of our veterans.
  So when you talk about Pell grants, I am wondering if you have talked 
to veterans and heard about the gaps in funding that they are 
experiencing as they try and advance their skills when they get back 
home.
  I yield to the gentleman from Florida.
  Mr. MURPHY of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I have, and I think it is a great 
topic to talk about, and one that we should be able to find bipartisan 
support on.
  Because of some of the conversations I have had with some veterans 
and folks in my district, we introduced some legislation that would 
help veterans with their application costs. It's not just the cost of 
education. Sometimes it is just getting there. And these application 
costs getting into college can be $200, $500, and it could be even more 
than that.
  So when you are coming back and you are thinking about a decision, 
you might only have a couple of hundred bucks and you might have to 
make a decision, I am only going to apply to one school. That is not, I 
don't think, the intent. You should be able to have some options and 
see what options come back to you where you get accepted, et cetera.
  So, in this legislation, the intent is to waive some of these fees 
for application costs for these veterans to help them get onto that 
higher education.
  Mr. JEFFRIES. Mr. Speaker, if I can add to that observation that was 
made by my good friend from the Sunshine State, the three of us had a 
wonderful opportunity to visit Israel together, along with several 
other members of our class and, of course, Steny Hoyer, who led the 
delegation in August of 2013.
  I was struck in our conversations with some of the members of the 
Israeli society how well those individuals who had served in the IDF 
and then matriculated into society were treated. Their service in the 
IDF was highly valued--not just via words, but through deeds--and it 
enabled them to really build a successful career. They were treated 
with reverence.
  Congressman Swalwell, one of the things that perhaps was most 
disconcerting about my first few years in this institution is there is 
a lot of rhetoric--I guess I shouldn't be surprised that this is a 
place where there is a lot of hot air often spewed--that is devoid of 
substance. And in the area of veterans, in particular, what we find is 
that there is a lot of talk about treating veterans appropriately in 
terms of the sacrifice that they have made, their service, but we 
haven't really filled in the blanks in terms of substance.
  One of the areas that clearly is problematic is the fact, though we 
are promising to enable them once they leave their service to assist 
with furthering their educational goals, we are not providing them with 
the financial assistance and the resources necessary to actually make 
that happen. So I embrace efforts by Congressman Murphy and others to 
try to fill in the blanks in that regard, but a whole lot more needs to 
be done. We should be treating our veterans with the same reverence and 
respect, not just rhetorically, but substantively, as is done in 
Israel, our good friend and ally, and many other places in this world.
  Mr. SWALWELL of California. Mr. Speaker, it was an unforgettable 
trip. We learned a lot about their innovation economy, but we also saw 
firsthand how they valued the service of those who stood on the front 
lines for their country.
  So we are hitting the end of our hour here.
  The gentleman from Florida, any parting thoughts or actions?

[[Page 15869]]

  Our generation, we are an action-oriented generation. We are not very 
patient. We are a little stubborn. We like to see results.
  And you come to Congress under the leadership of this House across 
the aisle, and we don't see many results. I think we collectively want 
to work with anyone who is willing to work with us on our Republican 
colleagues' side to find results.
  Any thoughts on what can we do to help a whole generation that is in 
financial quicksand right now?
  I yield to the gentleman from Florida.
  Mr. MURPHY of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I want to remind those watching 
and our friends on the other side of the aisle that this is, I think, a 
great opportunity for bipartisanship.
  When I talk to voters, whether it is around the district or around 
the State, they are tired of seeing the nonsense. You know, they look 
at their jobs and they haven't seen a raise in 10 years. They look at 
their children who either maybe haven't gotten into college or do get 
into college and graduate and they have got hundreds of thousands of 
dollars of debt. When they turn on C-SPAN, they see us bickering and 
arguing about nonsense.
  This is a serious problem. This is something that has to be addressed 
soon. It should have been addressed years ago. Let's stop the rhetoric 
and let's start talking to each other and solving these problems and 
making sure that, not only are we bringing down the cost of higher 
education, but we are making sure that those who do have the student 
loans are on an orderly repayment structure, one that makes sense, one 
that is reasonable per their income. Let's make sure that the dream of 
America is still alive for future generations.
  Mr. SWALWELL of California. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from 
Florida for participating in this.
  I invite anyone at home to follow along, follow the conversation at 
#futureforum. Engage with these Members and others.
  I yield to the gentleman from New York. Any parting thoughts on what 
we can do as a Congress to unite and solve this problem?
  Mr. JEFFRIES. Mr. Speaker, I thank the distinguished gentleman from 
the Golden State for his leadership and for putting forth this effort, 
bringing in younger Members of Congress to be able to speak to issues 
of relevance, not just to the entire body of the American people, but 
specifically to the next generation of Americans that will continue to 
make this country great as long as we provide them with the tools and 
the opportunity.
  I agree with my good friend from Florida that this is an issue that 
should not be partisan in nature. This is an issue that impacts people 
from north to south, to the east and the west, from urban communities, 
suburban communities, rural communities, red States, blue States, all 
over America. I think what we are saying here today is that we extend 
out our arms, our olive branch of friendship and partnership on behalf 
of the American people to try to solve this problem together.
  It is clear that there is a problem, it cannot be denied, and it is 
one that requires urgent intervention in order to make sure that we can 
continue to preserve the American Dream for the greatest number of 
younger Americans possible. Right now, the dream is being suffocated in 
ways that threaten our economic vitality moving forward, and that is a 
tragedy. But I remain optimistic. We were sent here all collectively to 
get things done, and I look forward to working together in that regard.
  Mr. SWALWELL of California. Mr. Speaker, that is right. We were sent 
here to do our job, to be problem solvers and really be voices, I 
think, for all generations of Americans, but especially this generation 
which is the largest generation America has ever known. It is the most 
diverse generation America has ever known, and I think it is one of the 
most aspirational generations America has ever known. They are waiting 
for anybody in this body to help them get out of this financial 
quicksand and start being able to be empowered and really realize their 
own American Dream.
  So I thank the gentlemen for participating today. I thank our 
pioneers from the 30-Somethings and invite them to come back for a 10-
year reunion.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

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