[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 7]
[House]
[Page 10191]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                 TRANSFORM STUDENT DEBT TO HOME EQUITY

  (Ms. KAPTUR asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to introduce the Transform 
Student Debt to Home Equity Act.
  Today, 40 million Americans have Federal student loan debt totaling 
$1.3 trillion. Additionally, at the end of 2016, 17.2 million habitable 
homes sat vacant in our country.
  These two trends are intertwined. Student debt is prohibiting 
millions and millions from buying their first home. We must find a 
solution, or thousands more will be saddled with sunk debt depriving 
them of building wealth through building home equity.
  The Transform Student Debt to Home Equity Act offers us a road 
forward. This bill allows the Department of Housing and Urban 
Development and the Federal Housing Finance Agency to start a pilot 
program that connects creditworthy Federal student debt holders with 
habitable homes for sale from the Federal ledger.
  By recalculating financing terms and interest rates, some student 
debtors can transition their debt into homeownership. Eventually 
creditworthy participants would pay off debt and help strengthen 
neighborhoods simply by maintaining their home mortgage.
  We must use our power and resources to transform debt to equity. 
Transforming a student debt to home ownership is a pathway forward for 
the aspiring generation.
  I encourage my colleagues to support our measure, and let us unleash 
the stranglehold of debt on the next generation and allow them to build 
wealth through homeownership.

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