[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 3]
[House]
[Pages 4338-4343]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                            THE FUTURE FORUM

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 6, 2015, the Chair recognizes the gentleman from California 
(Mr. Swalwell) for the remainder of the hour as the designee of the 
minority leader.
  Mr. SWALWELL of California. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to address one 
of the greatest moral crises of our time:

[[Page 4339]]

student loan debt on my generation. Because of student loan debt, an 
entire generation is in financial quicksand.
  Here are some startling facts of the student loan debt that our 
generation carries today. Approximately 40 million Americans had one or 
more student loans. The average amount owed on student loans is 
$33,000, and 70 percent of students graduating this year will be 
burdened with this debt.
  On average, it will take a student with this debt, graduating with a 
bachelor's degree, over 19 years to pay off their loans.
  This evening, the House Democratic Caucus' Future Forum will address 
this moral crisis, and we have got a number of Members who will work 
with us this evening to talk about their personal stories or stories 
that they are hearing in their district.
  We have also asked Americans across our country, including in my 
congressional district in the East Bay, to tweet or Facebook at us 
under #mystudentdebt or #futureforum; and we will answer some of their 
tweets this evening.
  First, I am going to yield to a colleague of mine who came in, in the 
113th Congress, somebody who had student loan debt himself and 
represents a district in Washington, Mr. Kilmer.
  Mr. KILMER. Mr. Speaker, I grew up in a small town in Washington 
State that I now have the opportunity and the honor of representing.
  My folks were schoolteachers. My father, actually, this year, is in 
his 50th year as a teacher in the classroom. The reality is I couldn't 
have gone to college if it hadn't been for the support of my community 
and the assistance of financial aid.
  I got grants and I got loans that made the dream of college a 
reality, and I had a community that had my back, that literally passed 
the hat by providing me with scholarships to help me fulfill my own 
dreams of a college education.
  I believe that education is the door to opportunity, and for a lot of 
families, including mine, financial aid is the key to that door; but 
the reality is, for too many families today, that door is locked. We 
have got work to do.
  In 2013, Democrats and Republicans came together to pass legislation 
to protect student borrowers so that they can obtain low interest 
rates, but our work isn't done. We need to continue to have a 
commitment to quality and affordable education.
  That is why I am proud to be a cosponsor of a bill that would allow 
those with outstanding student loan debt to be able to refinance at the 
same low rate as new borrowers.

                              {time}  1930

  Two and a half centuries ago, Benjamin Franklin wrote: ``An 
investment in knowledge pays the greatest interest.'' I think that was 
true when he wrote it, and I think it remains true today. We know this.
  Not every student is going to go to college, but we know that college 
is a door-opener. We know that. And we know that America's 
competitiveness depends on our ability to have a good, skilled, 
qualified workforce, to have quality educational opportunities for our 
workforce. We know that as educational attainment rises, so do wages 
and so do employment levels.
  We know that it is wiser to invest in education on the front end than 
it is to pay for prisons and unemployment on the back end; and that, to 
a large degree, is a decision that we make as a country and as a 
society. But that only works if we provide opportunities for students, 
if we ensure that they don't drown in debt.
  In our Nation, student loan debt now surpasses credit card debt. We 
need to make sure that when young people graduate college, they have an 
opportunity to join the workforce, to start a business, or to teach the 
next generation, not simply to be bogged down with debt.
  One of the coolest parts of this job is the opportunity to get to 
meet with young people, to get to meet with college students and high 
school students, people who have a long way ahead of them. And I think 
about what I want for those students. I think about what I want for my 
own kids. I want them to be able to look at the future not with fear of 
debt and fear of astronomical financial obligations but with hope for 
their future.
  I know that the college education that I was afforded and the 
financial aid that I received that paid for that college opportunity 
enabled me to live a lifetime that was filled with hope. So we have got 
work to do. And I, for one, am committed to working with the good 
gentleman from California and others in this Congress--hopefully from 
both sides of the aisle--to address this opportunity and make sure that 
all young people and, frankly, all who want to pursue educational 
opportunity see that door open to them.
  Mr. SWALWELL of California. I know there are a number of colleges in 
your district in Washington or around your district. And when you talk 
to young people today and they are thinking about going to college, how 
much are you hearing that the potential of debt is weighing on that 
decision?
  Mr. KILMER. I appreciate the question. It is the main concern that we 
hear.
  I was in a high school classroom just last month and heard concerns 
from students who said: I want to go to college. I want to pursue that 
opportunity, but I am fearful that I won't be able to afford it.
  We have seen in my State and in States all throughout this country 
that as States faced difficult budget times, two things happened. One, 
State support for our educational institutions got cut, and tuition 
rose. Oftentimes, financial aid--either from the institutions or from 
other sources--didn't keep up with those increases in tuition. So young 
people are concerned about that. They recognize that further education 
is going to be really important for their chances of getting a good 
job. Again, not every job requires higher education, but as we look at 
those fastest-growing jobs in our economy, more and more of those jobs 
require at least some postsecondary education.
  Mr. SWALWELL of California. And is it just young people who are 
concerned about it? What do you hear from their parents as far as what 
the debt means if they have got a child who has just graduated college 
and is out there in the job market? Are you hearing from the parents as 
well?
  Mr. KILMER. It is certainly a huge concern.
  In nearly every town hall meeting I have, concerns around student 
loan debt and access to affordable, quality education come up. But even 
outside of parents, there are folks in my community who have, 
unfortunately, lost their jobs and want to go back to school.
  I was at Olympic College in my district in Bremerton, Washington, and 
their foundation had a luncheon that was to support students and their 
ability to pay for college. We heard from one of the students who was a 
more mature student who had started her college career either sleeping 
in her car or sleeping in the student center. And that, for too many 
people, is a reality these days. We need to make sure that education is 
affordable, that education is quality, and that the key that financial 
aid represents to that door of opportunity is available for everybody.
  Mr. SWALWELL of California. I thank the gentleman from Washington, 
and I look forward to seeing your good work across Washington and in 
this Congress to address this moral crisis of our generation.
  Mr. KILMER. Thank you.
  Mr. SWALWELL of California. I mentioned that we are going to be 
having a conversation not just here on the House floor, but we have 
been talking to young Americans and people with student debt across 
America. So you can tweet on your phone at #mystudentdebt or on 
Facebook at #mystudentdebt or also tweet under #futureforum.
  I just want to read one of the first tweets that came in on this, and 
this came from Natalie Collier. She is from my hometown in Dublin, 
California. It is a place where, when I was growing up there, only less 
than 30 percent of the high school graduates were going on to 4-year 
universities. That number has more than doubled today. But

[[Page 4340]]

young people like Natalie who have gone on to college have this to say.
  She is in college now and she said that she pays $300 each month to 
reduce her interest payments, and without such payments, she could save 
to buy a house.
  So we are asking on social media, first: What is your monthly payment 
for your student loan debt? For some student loans, you have to start 
paying them immediately while you are still in college, especially for 
many of the private ones. Others you have to pay them immediately upon 
graduation.
  The second question is: What would you do with that money if you 
weren't spending it on your student loan debt? How would you spend that 
money?
  With Natalie's $300, we can imagine if she didn't have to spend that 
on her student loan debt, that would be spent in the economy, hopefully 
allowing her to save to buy a home, pay her auto payment, pay her rent, 
hopefully near where she works, and she doesn't have to spend as much 
time on the road.
  So there is a ripple effect that goes out into the economy if we can 
lessen the burden that the student loan debt has on younger people in 
our country.
  This issue is one that is personal to me because I have student loan 
debt. My student loan story is that I was fortunate to go to college on 
an athletic scholarship. That was the only reason I was able to go to 
college.
  My parents were not able to afford to send me to college, and I knew 
that I had to work hard and play soccer well, and that would be my 
ticket and that I would be the first in my family to go to college. But 
like many young athletes, I got injured. I wanted to stay in college, 
so I had to take out student loans. About 90 percent of the student 
loans I took out were Federal student loans, but there had to be a 
bridge between the Federal student loans I had and the tuition that I 
owed. So we had to take out some higher interest private loans.
  Over $100,000 is what I have today, and I never complained about it. 
I knew it was an investment in my future. And I worked every job I 
could to try to make it work and to meet the tuition demands that I had 
every semester.
  But I have talked to young people from where I grew up and across our 
country, and I have realized that this isn't something that is just 
affecting me. I pay roughly $400 a month still on my student loan debt. 
It is something that is weighing like an anchor on young people across 
our country--41 million young people, approximately, with over $1 
trillion in student debt.
  It weighs on every major decision they have to make in their 
formative years: when or whether to start a family, being able to buy 
their first home, leaving the job they have to take a risk and go out 
and start a business on their own.
  Of all of these decisions, the biggest factor for young people today 
is that student debt that they carry. And it is weighing them down. It 
is weighing an entire generation down, and it is something that this 
United States Congress must do.
  I am glad to see here for his second Future Forum appearance my 
colleague from Colorado, Congressman Jared Polis.
  And I would be interested, Congressman Polis, in what you think and 
what you are hearing from young people as far as how this weighs on 
decisions they have to make and what we can do here in the Congress.
  Mr. POLIS. I thank the gentleman from California for his leadership 
on this issue and for raising public awareness about the role that 
Congress should play and is failing to play with regard to making 
college more affordable.
  This morning I had the opportunity to meet with the chancellor of one 
of our flagship State universities in the district I represent, the 
University of Colorado at Boulder. Chancellor Phil DiStefano came by, 
and we talked a lot about college affordability.
  Now, the university, in its own right, I am proud to say, is doing 
what they can. They are creating a new 3-year program, where students 
can graduate in 3 years and only have to pay for 3 years of tuition. 
They are also creating an interest-free installment program, where 
students can pay their fees spread out over a longer period of time 
without interest, financed through the university.
  And I am very proud to report that CU will only increase student 
tuition by 3 percent this year, which is the lowest increase in several 
decades.
  Now, moving from what many of our universities are trying to do in 
their own right to what Congress can do is where we need to shift the 
discussion here. Making student loans more affordable, reducing the 
interest rate, and in some cases, raising the cap available are all 
absolutely, absolutely critical to help young people afford a higher 
education that enables them to succeed in the workforce.
  We are not doing enough. We ought to address some of the cost drivers 
within higher education. I think we took a good first step with the 
Affordable Care Act, with looking at some of the costs of health care 
in education.
  Another example is looking at some of the costs of content 
acquisition. Dr. Phil DiStefano was telling me that their library costs 
of acquiring material and keeping their professional journal 
subscriptions is increasing at 15 percent a year. One of their cost 
drivers. That is why some of us here supported a bill--and President 
Obama took the first steps on this--to make sure that taxpayer-
supported research, money that is funded through NIH research--it is 
funded through NIH or NASA, taxpayer-funded research--is made freely 
available to the public and is not only available in prescription 
journals that not only raise the costs for our universities but make 
access to the very science that we, the people, financed less 
egalitarian by limiting it to those who can pay for it.
  In addition, we talked about open source textbooks. Would you believe 
that after you pay tuition, after you finally, you know--oh, my gosh, 
with this debt and my parents' help and my job--oh, but then guess 
what? $1,100 for textbooks. I kid you not.
  I had heard from a lot of students that their textbooks were $1,100, 
$1,200. And I asked the chancellor today. I said, Am I hearing from the 
students in the worst-case scenario? He said, No, that is average. That 
is average. It is costing the average student $1,100 a semester for the 
textbooks they need to succeed. We don't need that. We can, through 
innovation, disintermediate that and have collaborative open source 
content of the same or superior quality that professors put together 
for students and is available for free or near free.
  It doesn't matter if people want it online or as a textbook. The 
physical act of producing a textbook is only $3 or $4, not $50 or $100. 
Most of that profit margin goes to textbook companies. Very little is 
with the authors or the professors who contributed the work. They 
largely do it for professional consideration and prestige. And if we 
can build a culture that supports and empowers content platforms that 
are open source, we can truly bring down those textbook costs which are 
so onerous for students in higher education.
  So we should challenge Congress to do something about the looming 
student debt crisis, not just for the students that are accruing it 
today, but for people who graduated 5 or 10 years ago and are still 
suffering under the yoke of the debt that they incurred that allowed 
them to have a decent job in America.
  Mr. SWALWELL of California. I mean, this seems like a problem of, 
What do you do with the student today and the student tomorrow? And 
that revolves around what the interest rates are going to be.
  And you just alluded to, this isn't just about today and tomorrow. 
This is about the generation that took on the debt and is carrying it 
now and is in the workforce.
  We have just introduced in the Congress the Bank on Students 
Emergency Loan Refinancing Act, introduced by our colleague from 
Connecticut, Joe Courtney, which kind of goes to this. And maybe you 
could talk a little bit about what can we do for students who already 
have this debt and they hear most of the focus being on the interest 
rate for the future. What can we try to

[[Page 4341]]

help them as they try to navigate with this debt?
  Mr. POLIS. We can't forget students who financed their education at 
higher interest rates, when inflation was higher, who years after their 
graduation still suffer under the yoke of debt. That is the reason why 
Representative Courtney brought forth his bill.
  And when I hear from constituents, that is one of the top things that 
I hear. I hear from people who might have graduated 3 years ago, 5 
years ago, even 20 years ago, but their debt load is impacting their 
ability to live their lives; their ability to buy a home, which they 
can't do because of it; their ability to have a family simply because 
of the way or the manner that they financed it or the time they 
financed it.
  So I think it is absolutely appropriate for us to find a way to make 
sure that people are rewarded for their educational achievement and not 
penalized.

                              {time}  1945

  The greatest asset our country has is our intellectual capital. It is 
the ideas and knowledge of our people. That is our greatest asset. Yet 
in this day and age the fact that we are penalizing people for 
bettering themselves and for acquiring knowledge that is needed for our 
economy to succeed is absolutely ridiculous, and that is exactly what 
we need to do.
  I invite the gentleman from California to talk about how some of 
these issues were highlighted in the recent budget debates we had 
because when a lot of people hear, oh, the Democrats and Republicans 
are fighting about the budget, it seems very esoteric. They say: What 
is this budget? What is that budget? Well, these are very important 
statements because it shows how each party would govern. Specifically, 
the visions that each budget set forth with regard to higher education, 
college and how to afford it are night and day.
  I am hoping that you can talk about, just moments before on the floor 
of this very House, the budget that, unfortunately, our Republican 
colleagues passed and then contrast that with the budget that you and I 
voted for which would have made college more affordable and helped 
families afford college.
  Mr. SWALWELL of California. Just looking at the Twitter feed, we see 
@hi_moya saying: As graduation approaches, my student debt looms over 
me like an oncoming storm. It makes me hesitant to start grad school.
  I appreciate the gentleman from Colorado alluding to the budget that 
we, just moments ago on this House floor, voted on. We had two 
competing budgets when it came to many issues that are important to 
this country. But for my generation, looking at the generation of 18- 
to 35-year-olds, there is no issue that is more important and affects 
more people than student loan debt.
  The Republican budget would cut $220 billion in funds for college 
accessibility. It would cut Pell grants. It would cut subsidized 
student loan programs, and it cuts income-based repayment. These 
backward policies not only are hurting students, they are hurting the 
progress of our economy. They would make college more unaffordable for 
millions of prospective students.
  Nine million students today benefit from Pell grants. Two-thirds of 
African American students receive Pell grants, and half of Latino 
students receive Pell grants. Nine out of 10 Pell grant recipients are 
already taking out student loans. These students need more help from 
their government.
  I want to make it clear that no student that I have ever talked to, 
no student who has ever taken on the debt believes that this should 
just be a handout or a gift from the government. The position of the 
Future Forum, the position of the House Democratic Caucus is that if 
you believe in young people, if you take a chance on them, and if they 
are hard-working and qualified, they will take that investment, they 
will take that risk, and they will pay back their student loan debt. 
But we don't have to gouge them. The government doesn't have to make 
money on young people looking for a way up. The government doesn't have 
to make money on people who are looking for and seeking to seize upon 
opportunity.
  Speaking of young people, just joining us now here in the House 
Chamber is a first-term Member of Congress, someone who is also making 
a second Future Forum appearance and someone who cares deeply about 
what student loan debt means for the constituents in his Pennsylvania 
district.
  Mr. Chairman, I yield to Brendan Boyle.
  Mr. BRENDAN F. BOYLE of Pennsylvania. I very much appreciate the 
leadership that the gentleman from California has shown in forming our 
caucus, and also especially when it comes to this issue which is near 
and dear to my heart. I have talked many times during my campaign about 
the fact that I thought it would change the dynamic to now have a 
Member of Congress who himself has tens of thousands of dollars of 
student loan debt because I wanted to do exactly what we are doing 
tonight, be able to speak on the House floor and say, yes, this is an 
incredibly serious issue that needs to be dealt with as the national 
problem that it is.
  Depending on how you judge mortgages, student loans are considered 
either the largest source of debt or the second largest source of debt 
in America today, a tenfold increase in the last 20 years--tenfold 
increase. That is unsustainable. I believe that it is unfair and a 
tremendous burden to those who are young and, frankly, not so young and 
raising families of their own. But not only is there the fairness 
argument, there is also the argument that it just makes no sense for 
the United States of America in the 21st century to be going in this 
direction, to be penalizing those who are attempting to better 
themselves and become better workers, become better trained and ensure 
that they can participate in the workforce of the 21st century.
  So I believe that this is an issue, frankly, that has been 
undercovered and underfocused on over the last several years. I believe 
that there is a danger of this actually being a student loan debt 
bubble. And I believe that it is about time that this Congress, the 
House and the Senate, finally dealt with this as the national crisis 
that it is.
  Mr. SWALWELL of California. So I would ask the gentleman, I am 
looking through our Twitter feed here, and we have got a number of 
people who have kind of chimed in on it. One young person just tweeted 
at us, Dolores Tejada. She is a child of immigrants from Guatemala, and 
she is the first in her family to go to college. Her parents, she said, 
make the minimum wage, and she has been working for 6 years at a 
nonprofit and pays $350 a month on her student loan debt. She said 
without this payment, she would buy a car--she currently has to share 
one with the entire family--and she would move out of her parents' 
house.
  Have you heard stories like Dolores' in your district or across our 
country?
  Mr. BRENDAN F. BOYLE of Pennsylvania. Well, first, I couldn't help 
identify with the tweet from Dolores. Like she, I am a first-generation 
American. My father is an immigrant. And like Dolores, I am the first 
in my family to go to college. Student loans played an important part 
in enabling me to go to college. So I don't in any way use my own 
personal experience as a woe is me. I consider myself one of the very 
fortunate ones.
  But the fact that I had the benefit of winning scholarships and 
piecing together student loans and tens of thousands of them along with 
every work-study job you can imagine, the fact that I am actually one 
of the lucky ones and it was that difficult, I know so many people in 
the neighborhood where I grew up in Philadelphia who weren't as 
fortunate. I know so many people today in my neighborhood and all 
throughout the country who have exactly the same story that Dolores had 
in that she says: Well, with this extra $350 a month, I would be buying 
a car; I would be saving for a down payment on a home.
  It is interesting. I hear these kinds of stories not just from those 
who are in repayment, I hear them from Realtors who have been in the 
business two, three, or four decades. They will say to

[[Page 4342]]

me: Brendan, I can't tell you what a difference it is today. Back when 
I was starting out, I would sell so many homes to younger people, 24, 
25, 26. Now I don't have one customer in their twenties. Why? Because 
the student loan payments are taking that up.
  So that means that it doesn't only hurt the graduate who is in 
repayment; it also has a spillover effect in our overall economy. It 
hurts the Realtors. It hurts the contractors who would have done work 
once that young couple or the young person bought a house. It hurts the 
Home Depot down the street. There is this spillover effect in our 
economy. And it is getting to the larger point I was talking about that 
this is not just a problem for young people. This is a problem for 
families who want to send their kids to college. This is a problem for 
Realtors. This is a problem for anyone who wants economic development 
to be spurred in our country. Essentially, this is a national issue.
  Mr. SWALWELL of California. We are looking at Twitter, and I see 
Jenna on Twitter from New York City, who says: I chose a State school 
as the affordable choice over better schools where I was accepted and 
still have $30,000 in student loan debt.
  Are you seeing that in Pennsylvania where the State universities are 
starting to see their tuitions go up almost as much as the tuition at 
private universities?
  Mr. BRENDAN F. BOYLE of Pennsylvania. Well, unfortunately, yes. While 
I am a born and raised and proud Pennsylvanian, I am sad to say on this 
score we are the second worst in the country. We have the second most 
expensive public colleges and universities in the Nation. Sure enough, 
our Pennsylvania residents have the second highest amount of student 
loan debt in the country. So this is a problem affecting my State. It 
affects all 50 States, but, unfortunately, it is worse in my home State 
than almost every other State in the country.
  Mr. SWALWELL of California. Now, we are talking about student loan 
debt as well as student loan interest rates, two separate issues, but 
both affecting essentially the same generation. We saw just this week 
our colleague, Joe Courtney, within the past week introduced his bill. 
I want to see if the gentleman has a position on this. It is the Bank 
on Students Emergency Loan Refinancing Act. What it would do is it 
would allow eligible student loan borrowers to refinance their private 
and Federal loans. As the gentleman knows, if you have an auto loan or 
if you have a home loan and if you have a business loan, you can often, 
if qualified, refinance those loans as interest rates change and the 
markets change. Right now, you can't do that with student loans.
  How do you think this would change the debt load that young people 
are carrying today if they could take that student loan to the 
marketplace and find competitive refinancing rates.
  Mr. BRENDAN F. BOYLE of Pennsylvania. I am proud to be a cosponsor of 
Representative Courtney's bill. Elizabeth Warren is the sponsor in the 
Senate of the companion legislation.
  This would have a transformative effect on helping those who right 
now are struggling with the student loan payment. So many of the ideas 
that we have are more geared toward those who will be going to college 
and aren't yet college age. This is the one idea that can actually help 
those who are living today under the burden of higher student loan 
debt.
  It is important to note that neither of us are talking about 
forgiving debt or eliminating debt or giving people a free ride or 
allowing them to get away from the debts they incur. We are simply 
saying allow them to have the market mechanism that so many others 
have; allow them to refinance at the current low rates. This would be a 
tremendous savings, literally tens of billions of dollars saved. And 
then that is money that in turn will be repumped into our economy. So I 
believe it would have an incredibly positive effect, and I am a strong 
supporter of it.
  Mr. SWALWELL of California. I am glad you mentioned the effect it 
would have on the economy. I just heard 2 minutes ago from Andreas 
Giraldo. He said with the $389 that is going to student loan debt, I 
could be buying a house. If you just imagine, you take 40 million 
people who have debt right now, and if we found a way for them to 
refinance it or reduce it and save them hundreds a month, they are not 
going to just sit on that money or put it under the mattress. They are 
going to put that money back into the economy.
  Mr. BRENDAN F. BOYLE of Pennsylvania. I am thinking of you being in 
California in a much more expensive area than, while Pennsylvania is 
not cheap, by California standards, it is much more affordable. How 
much of an effect would it have for the young, bright, well-educated 
folks in northern California if they could suddenly have an extra, 3, 
400 a month to help them afford the cost of living there and save for a 
down payment?
  Mr. SWALWELL of California. The bay area is a beautiful place to 
live. It is 80 degrees there this week. It is one of the most educated 
places in the world. It has an innovation economy that is charting the 
course for the new American economy and is really defining how the 
American worker is going to work going forward. But the biggest 
downfall, the downside, if there is any in the bay area right now, is 
the cost of living. It costs so much to own a house. It costs so much 
for health care and starting a business. There are so many costs to be 
in the bay area today that it is pricing out young people.
  So if you go to a good school, you are qualified, you make it to a 
good school, you take on the student loan debt, and you want to go into 
the workforce, with the debt that you carry, first, chances are you are 
not going to be able to live anywhere near where you are going to work 
because you are not going to be able to afford it.
  I had the California Association of Realtors in my office today. Our 
local rep, Otto Catrina, was telling me how hard it is for him. He told 
me the story today of somebody who works at one of the largest tech 
companies in America. This person makes, he said, over $100,000 a year. 
And because of the student loan debt that she has, she is having a 
very, very difficult time buying a house. That is somebody who makes 
over $100,000 a year, and that is in the upper echelon of incomes in 
our country.
  Can you imagine the middle class worker, the hard-working American 
who is making $40,000, $50,000 a year, wants to maybe go do some good 
and teach in a classroom? How is that person going to live near where 
they work? How is that person going to buy a home? How is that person 
going to start a family and have kids?
  So I am glad the gentleman asked that, because those are the stories 
I see back where I grew up. That is why people care about that issue.
  Mr. BRENDAN F. BOYLE of Pennsylvania. You actually just referenced 
another point of this that I think is such a good point, and that is 
that this student loan debt is actually preventing young people from 
going out and starting their own businesses, which is a personal 
tragedy for them, but also has, again, tremendously negative effects on 
our overall economy. I am wondering, particularly in an entrepreneurial 
area like the bay area, you must hear similar stories.

                              {time}  2000

  Mr. SWALWELL of California. We have become in the Bay Area a place 
where approximately 75 percent of the venture funding is going right 
now. There are a lot of smart, young, energetic determined people with 
good ideas, but they don't have a lot of funding. And for them the 
decision becomes, well, I have got this job right now that pays my 
student loan debt and pays my other bills, but I have this great idea, 
which is my passion, which is my dream. But if I leave my job and I 
risk it all, I still have this debt; it is going to follow me, and it 
is going to be really hard if this doesn't take off. I see that 
decision point so often across the Bay Area.
  I just think, as you said, we are not asking to just completely say 
to every bank, You no longer can collect on this debt. I think what we 
are asking is, Let's start the conversation. How do we reduce it? How 
do we refinance it?

[[Page 4343]]

How do we give people more money in their pocket every month so that 
they can help themselves lift up their families and help our economy?
  I see in the Chamber here with us our former caucus chair John 
Larson, the gentleman from Connecticut. I am putting him on the spot a 
little bit here. But I know he cares just as much as the gentleman from 
Pennsylvania and I do about what young people in his district are doing 
and how student loan debt affects him. So I am just wondering if our 
former chair could weigh in on what we can do in the Congress to help 
young people with student loan debt.
  Mr. LARSON of Connecticut. Well, first of all, I want to thank the 
gentleman from California and the gentleman from Pennsylvania for their 
hard work in this subject matter area.
  Certainly we know that all credit debt combined is exceeded by the 
amount of debt that those who attend and receive a college education 
are currently bearing and the awful burden that that has created on the 
working members of the middle class and how difficult a burden it is, 
so I commend the gentlemen for their efforts here on the floor.
  First of all, it starts with our budget that we debated today in 
making sure that there are not cuts to Pell grants, but there are 
investments made in Pell grants.
  Frankly, as people talk about repatriation, that is, as both the 
gentlemen from Pennsylvania and California know, where money has been 
sent overseas, and there is a lot of talk about bringing money back and 
what will we do with that, what about a trust fund that will allow an 
opportunity for young people all across America to refinance and 
restructure their ability to pay off their college debt? It is not a 
novel idea.
  After all, isn't that what we did for Wall Street after 2008? Isn't 
that what we did to make sure that banks and financial institutions 
didn't fail? Shouldn't we do this for the human infrastructure, for all 
those hard-working families who have refinanced their home, who have 
gone into their personal savings, who are saddled with enormous amounts 
of debt?
  What a great thing for the country and how valuable that would be for 
people to once again be able to have completed a college education, 
place themselves in a position to be more productive members of 
society, but also in a position where they are not burdened with the 
debt that prevents them from carrying on a life, to get married, to 
purchase a first home, to buy a new automobile, all the things that 
help our economy grow, all the reasons that they went to college in the 
first place.
  So I commend the two gentlemen for their continuous work in this 
area, your support of the Democratic budget. What a great job that 
Chris Van Hollen did today articulating the values that this side of 
the aisle has been putting forward not only in terms of the morality of 
the issue, but also the economic impact that it has on so many working 
families.
  I hope that our distinguished colleagues from California and 
Pennsylvania will join us in the second hour in a discussion on all 
generations on Social Security.
  Mr. BRENDAN F. BOYLE of Pennsylvania. I was just going to say how 
happy I am to welcome Mr. Larson as the newest member to the Future 
Caucus. There aren't many of us that have such wonderful white hair in 
the future caucus.
  But what is interesting is this is an exact linkage to the subject 
that we are going to talk about next with respect to Social Security. 
And that is, it is all part of the same system. The idea that you give 
opportunity to people, you demand responsibility, they pay into a 
system, they benefit at some point, and then the next generation 
benefits.
  People on Social Security today are able to benefit because of the 
workers of today. Thirty, 40 years from now, those students who are 
worrying about student loans will probably still be in the workforce 
and making, hopefully, more money that will pay into Social Security 
that will help the workers of today, who will be the retirees of 
tomorrow. So this is all actually linked and part of making America 
work.
  So I am proud to be with the two gentlemen.
  Mr. SWALWELL of California. Thank you. I don't think we could end on 
a more inspirational note than the eloquent words from our former 
chairman from Connecticut, Mr. Larson.
  This is about the future. I am proud to be a sponsor of the Social 
Security Fairness Act. I am glad that is getting some attention this 
evening.
  To summarize, the Future Forum and what we aspire for young people to 
have is not a handout when it comes to student loan debt, not a 
complete free pass where you just take on government investments and 
you don't give anything back.
  What we are saying is that if you are qualified and you worked hard 
and you have the student loan debt, it should be easier than it is 
today. We should be able to pass Joe Courtney's bill and allow you to 
refinance. We should find every way possible to reduce this debt for 
each person as low as we can.
  And if you are a student today, the government should not make money 
on your student interest loan. They shouldn't make money. If you are 
qualified and able to go to college, especially if you are like the 
gentleman from Pennsylvania or myself and you are the first person in 
your family to go to college, we should reduce every barrier to college 
because it is a part of achieving that American Dream of starting a 
family, owning a home, buying a new automobile, and saving for a secure 
golden retirement.
  So I thank the gentleman from Connecticut for his help this evening 
and coming down as a special cameo guest appearance. And I also thank 
the gentleman from Pennsylvania for, again, being a part of our Future 
Forum.
  You can tweet us at #futureforum and we will continue this 
conversation until we address what is the greatest moral crisis of our 
generation--student loan debt.
  I yield back the balance of my time.

                          ____________________