Bank on Students Emergency Loan Refinancing Act-Motion to Proceed

Floor Speech

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Ms. WARREN. Mr. President, I rise today to urge my colleagues to support the Bank on Students Emergency Loan Refinancing Act, which is currently pending before the Senate. This legislation would reduce student loan debt for millions of Americans and provide relief for those who are struggling to keep up with their payments.

Student loan debt is exploding, and it threatens the stability of our young people and the future of our economy. The debt now totals $1.2 trillion and it is growing bigger every single day. In 8 years the average student loan balance increased by 70 percent, and now 7 out of every 10 college seniors are dealing with student loan debt.

This debt is crushing our young people and dragging down our economy by keeping borrowers from being able to buy homes, cars, and open small businesses. It is keeping them from making the purchases that get their economic lives started and help our economy grow.

We must act now to provide relief for existing borrowers, and the Bank on Students Emergency Loan Refinancing Act will do exactly that. The legislation is straightforward. It allows existing borrowers to reduce their debt by refinancing their high-interest loans to much lower--and much more manageable--levels.

Depending on when they took out their student loans, millions of Americans are stuck in loans at 6 percent, 8 percent, 10 percent, and even higher. While interest rates are low, we propose to refinance those loans so that the old debt is at the same rates currently being offered to new student loan borrowers. These new rates are exactly the same rates that nearly every Republican in the House and Senate voted for just last summer as the fair rate for new student loans issued in 2013 through 2014--3.6 percent for undergraduate loans and a little higher for graduate and parent loans. These new rates are still higher than what it costs the government to run its student loan program. But if these lower rates are good enough for new borrowers, they should be good enough for older borrowers too.

Later today Senators will have a choice. They can move forward and debate this bill or they can filibuster it and prevent any consideration of this refinancing plan. Some Republicans have pointed out that the legislation doesn't solve every problem that we have in higher education. Well, that is true; refinancing will not fix everything that is broken in our higher education system.

We need to bring down the cost of college, and we need more accountability for how schools spend their Federal dollars. Senator Reid, Senator Durbin, and I have a bill to do just that, and we welcome our Republican friends to join us on that bill. But we have another problem right now--student loan debt. Refinancing that debt is a straightforward way to ease that problem right now. We should do it right now. If Senators want to do more, they should offer amendments to that bill, but they should not block it from being considered.

Some Republicans have expressed concern about the effect of student loan refinancing on the deficit. In fact, the bill is fully paid for and--according to official estimates from the Congressional Budget Office--it actually reduces the deficit, and that is because it is funded by stitching up the loophole in our Tax Code that allows some millionaires to pay lower tax rates than middle-class families. Investing in students and asking billionaires to pay their taxes seems pretty fair to me. If Senators want to pay for this in a different way, they should offer amendments to this bill, but they should not block it from being considered.

Finally, some have argued that the financial benefit for our young people here is small. If Republicans would like to lower the interest rates even more, then count me in. That is what I would like to do. But let's be clear: 40 million borrowers in this country have student loan debt--40 million--and many of those individuals could save hundreds or even thousands of dollars a year under this proposal. That is real money back in the pockets of people who invested in their education. If Senators want to change those rates, they should offer amendments to the bill, but they should not block it from being considered.

This should not be a partisan issue. Locking old borrowers into high interest rates just doesn't make any sense. The Federal Government should offer refinancing just like any other lender.

This is not only about economics, it is also about our values. These young people saddled with student loan debt didn't go to the mall and run up charges on a credit card. They worked hard and learned new skills that will benefit this country and help us build a stronger America. They deserve a fair shot at an affordable education.

Unfortunately, people struggling with student loans don't have the money to hire armies of lobbyists to argue their case on Capitol Hill, they don't have a super PAC, and they can't fund super secret political machines. But they have their voices, and they are making themselves heard. Over 700,000 people have signed petitions urging Congress to refinance student loans. Dozens of organizations have endorsed the bill--including student groups, colleges, and mortgage bankers.

Senators have a choice to make today. They can move forward and debate this bill, they can acknowledge that the debt is crushing our families and do what we were sent here to do--address an economic emergency that threatens the financial futures of Americans and the stability of our economy--or they can block this bill from being considered. They can refuse even to debate this idea in order to protect tax loopholes for millionaires and billionaires. That is it--billionaires or students, people who have already made it big or people who are working to build their futures.

With this vote, we show the American people whom we work for in the Senate--billionaires or students. A vote on this legislation is a vote to give millions of young people a fair shot at building their future. Forty million students and their families are counting on us.

I thank the Presiding Officer and yield the floor.

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