OFFICIALS LEGISLATION INTEREST GROUPS PUBLIC STATEMENTS COMMITTEES VETOES

Interest Rate Reduction Act

Floor Speech

Date: April 27, 2012
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: Higher Education Government Budget and Spending

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Mr. HOLT. I thank the gentleman, who is a pleasure to work with on the Education Committee.

Think of the great moments of American public policy--creation of land grant colleges, the GI Bill, providing student loans--all directed toward increasing access to higher education.

Four years ago, we, the Democrats, lowered interest rates for students to 3.4 percent, saving today's typical student borrower a couple thousand dollars. So 2 days ago, the Speaker, cornered by student outrage, says, well, the majority always intended to keep these rates low.

Well, if the Republicans really cared about keeping student interest rates low, why did their budget double those rates? They voted twice this year, clearly, explicitly, twice, to let rates double and collect $166 billion more from students so they could preserve tax giveaways for Big Oil.

Now they come and propose canceling preventive health care funding, not preventing cervical cancer, not preventing tobacco-related diseases, not preventing type 2 diabetes, eviscerating the Centers for Disease Control to preserve tax giveaways for Big Oil.

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