Empowering Students Through Enhanced Financial Counseling Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. MURPHY of Florida. Madam Chair, I rise today to support giving students and families the resources needed to make informed decisions about both their education and their finances.

I want to congratulate the gentleman from Kentucky (Mr. Guthrie) for his great work on this bill. I also want to thank the chairman, Mr. Kline, and Ranking Member Miller for working in a truly bipartisan process on this legislation to provide students with commonsense, personalized financial counseling about one of the greatest investments a student can make: their investment in their own education.

I strongly support the underlying legislation and offer this amendment as a complement to better inform students about not only the costs, but the benefits of completing their education.

With tuition rates quickly outpacing grants and scholarships, American students and their families increasingly rely on student loans to access higher education. Coupled with increased enrollment, student loan debt has ballooned to more than $1.2 trillion--greater than credit card debt, for the first time in history.

Last summer, we came together to pass bipartisan legislation which decoupled student loan interest rates from the whims of Washington and provided students and families the certainty needed to make long-term plans for the future. The bill before us today continues that mission by giving students the information they need to understand the rights and responsibilities that come along with investing in their higher education.

For many students, these loans are their first and often most costly experience as a borrower. Failing to provide students with the information they need to make responsible decisions and manage their debt does not just impact the delinquent borrower, but also the taxpayers.

Similarly, having students understand both their monthly and lifetime costs of debt they are accruing will enlist students in the fight to get student loan debt under control.

That said, despite mounting debt, a college degree is still generally one of the best investments students can make. For example, the average income for young adults with a bachelor's degree is just over $50,000, with only 4.9 percent unemployment. The dropoff for individuals who do not finish is steep, around $13,000 per year of income and a much higher unemployment rate of 7 percent.

We do not want students failing to complete their degree simply because they fear taking out additional loans. That is why I am putting forward this reasonable amendment to improve the underlying legislation by simply adding the inclusion of income and employment data for different levels of educational attainment. This information would strengthen the counseling required by improving students' perspectives as they take charge of their future and their finances.

Madam Chair, this major potential earnings reduction, combined with hefty student loans in repayment, is a recipe for financial disaster. That is why it is so important that students and families have the full picture when making decisions regarding investments in higher education, as the underlying bill offers.

I urge my colleagues to support this simple yet important amendment to make sure students can make the best decision possible while understanding the full impact of student loans they take out.

I yield back the balance of my time.

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