College Cost Reduction Act Of 2007--Continued
Floor Speech
COLLEGE COST REDUCTION ACT OF 2007--Continued -- (Senate - July 19, 2007)
Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I think with the consent agreement we are prepared to yield back the time we still have. I want to join, first of all, in thanking my friend and colleague from Wyoming, as I did in the opening of the discussion and debate on education. This reauthorization legislation--the
one we will consider on Monday--is legislation that had Senator Enzi's name on it until the change in the makeup of the Senate. We had worked on it in a bipartisan way. I think with the exception of the ethical issues, which have been developed more recently, it is by and large a reflection of a really strong bipartisan effort, as our reauthorization on the Head Start Program is as well.
That is the way we worked when Senator Enzi was the chairman. We have tried to follow that pathway. As he mentioned, there has been a long history of leaders in education who work on a bipartisan basis in the Senate, going back with the Republicans with Senator Stafford and with our friend Claiborne Pell, as well as Judd Gregg when he was chairman of the committee.
So we want to see this passed. Hopefully, by Tuesday sometime, we will be able to look back on these past days and see a job well done. But we still have work to do.
I want to take a moment of time, though, to join in thanking the staff. Senator Enzi has said it so well. There has been tireless work and a real willingness to find common ground. These staffs have worked very closely with all of us. These issues are of prime concern to every member of our committee. Every member of our committee is involved in these education issues. We have good exchanges on that, and they have all been interested for a long period of time.
But I wish to thank, certainly, on my staff Michael Myers, who heads our committee staff and does such a wonderful job, Carmel Martin, and Missy Rohrbach. Missy even managed to get married during this period of time. I don't know how she found that time.
J.D. LaRock, Erin Renner, Emma Vadehra, David Johns, Liz Maher, Parker Baxter and Nick Bath. For Senator Enzi, Katherine McGuire and Ilyse Schuman and Greg Dean, Beth Buehlmann and Ann Clough, Adam Briddell and Lindsey Hunsicker. There are many others, and I will include those as we go through the evening.
Mr. President, I was concluding the earlier remarks but I think many of our Members are ready to move ahead now.
The other major provisions of this legislation were the loan forgiveness for those in public service for 10 years, the ceiling on loan payments so they don't exceed 15 percent of monthly income, which assist people in repaying their loans in a responsible way. It is very solid legislation. It is good legislation. As I mentioned earlier, it deserves to be passed. We know the House is ready to move forward together on this bill. They have addressed this issue in the committee and they are ready to move ahead. I think the country is ready for us to move ahead.
As we have been willing and able to deal with education issues, I join in the plea of my friend and colleague from Wyoming in the hope we will not extend these amendments that have no relevance to the education of the young people in this country. They are entitled, I believe, to the kind of respect they should receive with an important piece of legislation that has been bipartisan, it has been worked through, and reflects the Nation's judgment in terms of understanding the importance young people can play and must play in our country and in our democracy, in our economy and in our national security. This legislation deserves, I believe, to have a quick and speedy passage.
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Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I understand we have 4 minutes. Earlier in the day, we had a good exchange with the Senator from Alabama. I pointed out that Alabama, under this legislation, gets an additional $442 million over the next 5 years in grant aid. My own State of Massachusetts gets $317 million. Alabama does exceedingly well, and that is under the need-based provisions of this program, the need-based provisions of this program.
The Senator from Alabama has raised I think three important points, and they should be addressed. First of all, the loan forgiveness is applicable to those who are on the Direct Loan Program or those who are on the Pell Grant Program. That is spelled out on page 14 of the legislation. That is spelled out on page 14.
Secondly, there is a cap--spelled out on page 30, that requires the borrower's annual adjusted gross income or annual earnings to be less than or equal to $65,000 for eligibility. So if they make more than $65,000, there is no loan forgiveness. So this is for those individuals who are working--the working middle class and the working poor.
Third, we believe, as this chart points out, that there is a value in terms of public service employment. We have heard the announcement about the COMPETE Act and about those who are going to go to conference on the COMPETE Act. That bill addresses math and science education and many other important areas. Try to find a good math teacher to serve the public schools of Boston--it's extremely difficult--a good science teacher, a good chemistry teacher to work in a high-need school. Try to find individuals who are going to work with the disabled population. Increasingly, we are finding challenges in meeting the needs of our elderly population so they can have independent living. We have listed the range of what we consider to be public service fields in this bill, and it is extensive. There is enormous need in America. There is an enormous desire of young people to work in those areas. The principal barrier is their indebtedness. They know that if we provide some help and assistance, which this legislation does, to provide some forgiveness, if they work 10 years--10 years--10 years they have to work in these areas in order to be eligible for some forgiveness. That is what the amendment of the Senator from Alabama wants to eliminate.
I have mentioned many times, and in traveling around to schools and colleges in my State of Massachusetts, the number of young people who want to do public service and work and make a contribution to their community, to their local communities, to their State or to the country. We were reminded earlier today by the excellent statement of the Senator from Maryland the difficulty in getting law enforcement people to work in many of the areas in the communities in Baltimore. There are important public responsibilities and services. We have a generation of young people who are prepared to do it. The principal thing that is blocking them is the limitation on their salaries. As we have seen, this chart gives you a pretty good example. A starting salary for teachers is $35,000, and the loan debt is $18,000. What this will do is provide some relief annually, up to $732, but if that teacher is a starting teacher in Massachusetts, at the end of 10 years of working with students in the public school system, they are going to get some loan forgiveness.
They are going to get a $10,000 forgiveness. This is not taxpayer money, Mr. President; this is the lenders' money. I hope the amendment will not be accepted.
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Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, what in the world does the Republican leader have against this legislation? The legislation we have here before the Senate passed 17 to 3. The authorizing provision that changes policy was virtually unanimous. Young people all over the country are looking in on the Senate. This is about the future of this next generation, their hopes and their dreams. It is about our country and being able to compete in the world. It is about the quality of our Armed Forces, about getting well-trained, well-educated young people. It is about our institutions, whether they are going to be functioning and working.
Why can't we go ahead and vote on this legislation? We were here for 2 days waiting for different amendments on education and few of them came. Why in the world are you holding up this legislation that means so much to the future of our young people? We are prepared to vote. We didn't have amendments over here on our side. We want to get this legislation going ahead. We are looking forward to the reauthorization debate for next week, and we are looking forward to getting something worthy of this institution.
In the 45 years I have been in the Senate under the leadership of Stafford of Vermont, of Claiborne Pell of Rhode Island, of the Members whom we have had here--we have had true commitment.
Why are we disrupting this effort?
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Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, first, this has nothing to do with our education bill whatsoever. It is completely not germane.
Secondly, it says to every American citizen who was not born here in the United States of America, who might have been an American citizen for 30 years or 40 years, you are going to have to go back in your history and demonstrate and show you were authorized to be here for the last 30 or 40 years if you are an American citizen, if you are born outside of this country.
What in the world does that have to do with our education system? Absolutely nothing. This amendment would apply to Henry Kissinger, it would apply to Madeleine Albright, it would apply to Mel Martinez. It would apply to all American citizens who were not born in this country.
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Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, a very basic and fundamental issue. This is a constitutional issue. The taxes that are raised result in a blue slip, which effectively is automatically exercised. The chairman of our Budget Committee, the Senator from North Dakota, understands this and understands it well. It effectively ends the bill. It effectively ends the bill constitutionally.
I understand the Senator from Louisiana is going to have an alternative. There are only three tax provisions, but the tax provisions that are offered effectively result in what is a constitutional blue slip. I have not talked about killer amendments or poison pills, I am talking about this constitutionally.
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Mr. KENNEDY. Madam President, as this debate comes to a close, I am reminded of the great moments in our Nation's history in which we look to the future and invested in future generations of Americans. We did it when we passed the GI bill. We did it when the Federal Government created the student loan program. We did it when we created Pell grants. And we do it again today with the largest new investment in student aid since the GI bill.
A vote for this bill is one we can cast with pride and great hope--pride in doing our part for the future of our great country and hope that our actions tonight will mean a better future for millions of young Americans.
By passing this bill tonight, we will recognize that principle once again.
We know that our students today face significant challenges in paying for college. Each year, over 400,000 talented, qualified students do not attend a 4-year college because they cannot afford it.
In 1993, fewer than half of all students took out loans to finance their education, but today, more than two-thirds of students borrow for college.
Today, the average student leaves college with more than $19,000 in student loan debt.
That is why this higher education legislation is so important. We will provide more than $17 billion to help students and families pay for college. This legislation will help reverse the crisis in college affordability in several ways: It will immediately and dramatically increase the amount of aid for Pell grant recipients; it will help students manage their debt, by capping student loan payments at 15 percent of their monthly income; it will provide longer deferments in loan repayments for student borrowers facing economic hardship; and it will completely forgive the loans of those who enter society's most needed professions. It will restore balance to our grossly unfair student loan system by reducing unnecessary subsidies for lenders.
Everything we know about the college affordability crisis tells us that low-income students and families are struggling the most. With this bill, we will increase the maximum Pell grant to $5,100 next year--a $790 increase--and to $5,400 in 2011.
I am very pleased that our legislation will expand loan forgiveness to borrowers who stay in public service professions for 10 years. Our society needs more teachers, more emergency management and law enforcement professionals, more public health doctors and nurses, more social workers, more librarians, more public interest lawyers, and more early childhood teachers. Under our bill, we will produce more of them, because they--and all the groups I have just mentioned--will be eligible for loan forgiveness.
The bill before us will deliver long-overdue relief to students and families across the Nation who are struggling to afford college. But there is more we can--and must--do to improve higher education for students and families.
Next week, we will take up other important changes in our higher education amendments of 2007. In this bill, we take commonsense steps to improve higher education. We will address the rising cost of college, pursue needed sunshine ethics reforms to the student loan industry, and steps to simplify the federal financial aid application form.
These are critical reforms--but the most critical steps are the ones we take tonight to dramatically increase college aid for our Nation's students.
From our earliest days as a nation, education has been the engine of the American dream. We can look to the landmark success of the GI bill to see what a difference higher education makes.
The GI bill produced 67,000 doctors, 91,000 scientists, 238,000 teachers, and 450,000 engineers. It also funded the education of three Presidents, three Supreme Court Justices and about a dozen Senators who served in this very Chamber.
This bill is a big step in the right direction. It dedicates over $17 billion for students and families to benefit from a college education and keep our country strong in the years ahead. It will help keep the doors to college open for all students, regardless of income level or background, just as the GI bill did half a century ago.
We can't let the engine of education stall today. More than ever college is the key to opportunity for students and the key to a strong America for the future. I urge the Senate to approve this important legislation.
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