let us pray to god of our fathers and our god who has watched over us from generation to generation in prosperity and adversity and peace and in war we give the we prepare for work we look to by worded need to counsel in programs trust in the lord with all their heart and lean not upon by own understanding in all i ways acknowledge him and he will direct by pat we thank before our republic where free thought and expression and diversity are honored he opens to hear the pleas of the people but t hear more clearly the voice of the turn on well remember in the words of our founding fathers that we are one nation under god we need comes in our duty is done may we know the the chair has examined the journal of the last days proceedings and announces her approval there of pursuant to cause one of the one general stands approved the pledge of allegiance will be led by the gentleman from texas mr conaway pledge allegiance to the last united states of america it's a republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all without objection the gentleman so i'll iowa mr boswell washington d c he served the congregation for twenty five years before retiring previous his assignment was to help our pastor it's in boston philadelphia in des moines he has served as a pastor for fifty years reverend france holds degrees from gresham university  the distinction of being the only pastor to be elected president of the wharton club and its eighty four year history while in washington ever in france has been involved in many community activities including working with st luke's instead missing a neighborhood shelter for a man dr french had been appointed during his ministry in washington president clinton appoint him to represent the white house on the u s o governing board in this capacity he visits various military solutions and help to provide a support program for the armed forces and their families dr france was appointed by the national  of health to serve as a representative of the national accounts conference on health fact finding board the board was designed to research and explore the needs in minority health and education he was selected for the more the national conference on ministry to the armed forces this report provides opportunities liaison service to the various agencies of the government as well as to the congress on occasion has offered has been invited to offer the opening prayer for both the house and senate dr french's a married to a loan from france a lawyer who serve you us house of representatives small business committee for nine years who sitting in the gallery the following seventeen years served in a special minister appointment as special masters for the national childhood vaccine injury program for the us court of federal claims she retired in information technology has six significantly changed the way we live and do business making it easier to communicate with others manage our personal finances or even track a package we ship across the country unfortunately the health care industry lags far behind other sectors in that utilization of information technology the inefficiencies and redundancies that result in this lack of automation cost the industry billions of dollars a year but more importantly cost lives and reduces quality of care as congress considers health care reform proposals focus should be given to system changes providing patients more choices more convenience and control over their health care records that's why today i will be introducing the independent health record trust act i will introduce this with congressman paul ryan from wisconsin we have over thirty original co a market driven approach to building a national health information network through this stablish in a federally certified organizations called independent health record trust individuals that have the option to sign up for an account to be managed by health record trust him or the way banks  millions of barrels of crude oil and refined products every single day that scenario is that is not positive for america we should begin today looking at policies that that decrease our dependence on foreign crude oil policies that increase domestic production of crude o policies and increase the private investment and domestic production of all the new sources including crude oil and natural gas policies which will help stabilize prices to consumers both for gasoline and electricity any policy that we look at it does the opposite that increases our dependence on crude oil producers domestic production reduces private investment in sources of energy in arbitrarily increases prices to consumers must be challenged and opposed these policies are important they do not wear party jerseys they're simply the right answer for america up for a vote in the appropriations committee tomorrow the tiahrt amendment restricts the use of firearm tracing data tracing data let's our police departments locate the gun dealers who sell guns used in crimes one percent of gun dealers sell fifty seven percent of the guns used in crimes across this country that is a staggering statistic if we can crack down on that one percent we can make our streets and our police officers safer the collection of tracing data does not prevent anyone from not buying a fire it simply gives laura for us than officials the tools they need to do their job let's make our streets safer and help lawrence force that by repealing the dangerous to the heart amendment with that i hope the american people start calling their congress people this is important for all communities and twenty six sixty nine in and in support of the mccain alternative as a father of three college graduates and a college sophomore and i understand the financial burden higher education poses on families and students that is why i'm proud of republican efforts particularly those of representatives buck mckeon and rick killer to expand college access in a crease and portability as lawmakers our number one education party should be to ensure that college is affordable for any student unfortunately h r twenty six sixty nine pitch the family of federal family education loan program against the direct loan program and creates an imbalance in the student loan industry instead of helping students to democrat entitlement bill would require student bars to pay thousands more for a college education eight or twenty six sixty nine creates nine new entitlement programs placing the interest of colleges and universities above the needs of low income students and does nothing to explain college access and affordability for middle class families congress should not be playing politics with congressional college educations i urge my colleagues to vote in favor of making an alternative in conclusion god bless our troops we'll never forget september eleventh gentleman's time has expired what purpose of the gentleman from illinois arrived without objection to miss baker mr speaker this saturday the president will issue an interim report on the iraqi government success or failure meeting the benchmark prior to taking a look at that report we have another set benchmarks to look at that is the prince marks for president bush's administration and what they've done with the iraqi policy when the war began the white house said the americans would be greeted as liberators but that's not happening next we were told oil revenues would finance reconstruction of the iraqi society not happening then we were told that the insurgency was in its last throes not happening then we were told that we were planting at them ocracy in the heart of the middle east not happening and every turn the administration's benchmarks for the iraqi strategy have failed to meet their own measure of success and the american people have been asked to pay for this  years ago we were spending five billion dollars a month in iraq it is now reported there were up to ten billion dollars a month in resources not counting the amount of lies we lose on the may on a monthly basis mr speaker we've waited long enough the present strategy of more troops more time more money and more the same has run its course it's time for a new direction gentleman's time has expired what purposes the gentleman from texas writes west mission one without objection speaker the blissfully ignorant british bureaucrats have decided to ignore who they are fighting in the name of political correctness prime minister brown is refusing to acknowledge acts of terror are committed by islamic radical insurgents the british government has banned the use of word as muslim and war on terror acts of terrorism are now referred to as criminal acts the islamic extremists who commit the attacks are being referred to as communities islamic terrorist can go ahead and continue their barrage of terror because proper britain won't even acknowledge who they are when did the great nation of britain turn into the timid politically sensitive fearful country that is more concerned about hurting the feelings of terrorists than protecting their island it's time for britain to boldly name the  the gate to turn around and fight for their country not hide behind nine cities winston churchill wonder frighten one would fight the nazis when he said we should go to the end we will defend our island whatever the cost will be we will fight on the beaches we will fight in the fields and on the streets we will never surrender and that's just the way it is gentleman's time has expired for what purpose of the gentleman from california rice without objection  graduating with greater and greater debt as a result they are increasingly unwilling to take critical public sector jobs such as first responders law enforcement officials nurses and teachers because of the modest salary for example nearly thirty two percent of graduates pursuing teaching careers can't afford to repay their loans on a starting teacher's salary bypassing the college cost reduction act we are encouraging rewarding public service by providing five thousand dollars in loan forgiveness to graduates who take public service job just because this is one excellent provision that makes an important investment in our community and it's just one of the many reasons i'm going to be supporting this legislation today i urge all of my colleagues support the college cost reduction act and seafood and pet food to toys and toothpaste has grown steadily chinese made products have accounted for sixty percent of recalls this year according to the u s consumer products safety commission china small scale food producers have been accused of unsanitary production conditions using chain it or substance under degree dns and failing to registered with the authorities about three hundred fifty thousand or seventy eight percent of china's food processing operations employ ten people or less america are rightly concerned when they learn many of the products imported from china pose a threat to their health american consumers have grown to expect that the products they buy at their local markets are safe for their entire family that is why is vitally important for congress to hold hearings on these issues to better examine how we can protect our constituents from sub standard chinese products that expired for the purpose of the gentleman from tennessee rice without objection thank you the speaker this past week was our home work week and we went to visit with our constituents to see what the people thought of the night this group to tennessee i found the people which i know who felt that this war that we're engaging in is one that we need to bring our troops home from they spoke of their family members who served in the previous war and said there's no purpose in what we're doing we don't understand that assault people who saw the movie sicko and came away amazed and as i toured the federal correctional institute i felt like i was watching sicko in law the editor for us all that if you're in prison you get all the health care you want but if you don't commit a crime you don't get health care in this country and michael moore's made a valid point and i saw people who feel like crime is a great problem in this country in their neighborhoods and who commit this democratic congress for passing the cops bill and having more monies for the hiring the policemen a provider technologies to protect our citizens the home and i solve people to wonder what's going on with our president and our vice president and ask more and more about impeachment it's something that the american congress needs to consider strongly for our executive powers are out of control thank you mr speaker gentleman's time has expired what purposes the gentleman from indiana ri without objection games you know the american people of a fair fight and so do i and in the debate over america's future we especially want to hear all the facts and all the arguments on every side of the issue unfortunately some in our nation's capital want to achieve that result by bringing back what is known as the fairness doctrine an archaic government regulation imposed by the federal communication that for decades required broadcasters to present controversial issues in a fair and balanced manner now it sounds acceptable enough but there's really nothing fair about the fairness doctrine mr speaker this is a relic of america's broadcasting past and it should stay in the past where it belongs fortunately two weeks ago three hundred nine republicans and democrats in the congress voted in favor of the pence amendment to prevent the f c c for one year from reinstituting the fairness doctrine but while i was pleased with the bipartisan passage of this legislation today we will open a second front to ensure that the fairness doctrine can never come back again in cooperation with colleagues in the house and the senate today we will unveil the broadcaster freedom act which will ensure that the c and any future administration cannot reregulate the airwaves of america without an act of congress i urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle join me in co sponsoring the broadcaster freedom act and of the free airwaves of america time has expired for what purpose of the john of pennsylvania writes that objection mr speaker even for those convinced the surge in iraq is in a state the manner in which we implemented decision to leave that country is critical to our nation therefore any congress mandating a new security policy through force of law was a careful explanation to the country why and how it is to be done including dealing with what would occur in the aftermath however much americans may agree with us a desire to reduce u s forces and withdraw them iraq quickly this nation must face the alternative what will happen in the region once that reach we deployment is done by a force of law we must remember it took us approximately six months withdraw a small number of troops to spawn somalia we have one hundred sixty thousand troops in iraq and over one hundred thousand contractors but the timeline of about a year that is needed for safe redeployment also works well to protect our regional interests in a strategic approach to end this war it provides the time needed for a strategy of regional accommodation take effect with iran syria and saudi arabia a strategy that rightly relies upon the wrong term interests in a stable aftermath therefore ending this war is necessary but insufficient how we ended by what means even greater importance our troops safety and our own security thank you gentlemen time has expired what purpose of the gentleman from new york rice that objection  a recent c r a c r s report shows that the united states is now spending ten billion dollars a month fighting the war in iraq that's over two and a half billion dollars a week and what does the american taxpayer get for this ten billion dollars a month an army being broken by repeated deployments a national guard that is on ready or not on able to respond to natural disasters or terrorist attacks at home because many of our men and women are in iraq and most of our equipment is an escalation in iraq that has resulted in more death and little reduction in violence in iraqi government that is unable to govern iraqi security forces that refill you refused to fully stand up the war in iraq has cost every man woman child in my district three thousand and seventy seven dollars for over three thousand dollars a person the people in my district have gotten a war that is that was a strategic mistake and has made them less safe it is time we end this war thank you mr speaker and i write today in support of h r twenty six sixty nine the college cost reduction act of two thousand and seven this intelligence bill increases federal scholarship amounts and loan limits to provide students with additional assistance in paying for college and to help them bring a lie left on costly or private loans in fact when i went to school college twenty five years ago college tuition at my university was eight thousand dollars a year grant was twenty seven hundred dollars a year today that very school cost thirty eight thousand dollars a year and the pell grant is forty one hundred dollars a year we need to do something about this legislation i'm pleased to see that the congress is moving to enact five thousand dollars of federal student loan forgiveness for students who are using the education they received to serve their community and country in areas of national need loan forgiveness provides a powerful message to students your government will help you if you choose to help your nation the college cost reduction act is an important step towards investing in american college students in our future workforce and i look forward to working with my colleagues to pass this today thank you mr speaker and i yield back your own time with expired what purpose is the gentleman from tennessee r objection thank you mr speaker today the house will vote on the college cost reduction act which sounds good on the surface but when she began to peel back the layers of this onion you find that it is just rotten to the core it contains billions of dollars of new spending and worse still it will never even see the light of day the president has vowed to veto the bill and it creates nine new entitlement government programs at a cost of one hundred ninety seven billion dollars over five years that's nine nine new programs and this is just the tip of the iceberg with the leadership spending this year twenty billion more than expected on the president to budget they had six billion more in new spending on january the best seventeen billion they added to troop spending since spending it goes on and on and it is enough to make a taxpayer cry and if there's one thing that we all know once you've got a government program you've got a government program ronald reagan said it best there is nothing so close to eternal life on earth as a federal government program the leadership knows this bill will mr speaker a week does not go by without at least one or two republican senators coming forward and saying what many of us have known for months that the president's iraq strategy has failed first it was senators lugar and voinovich then last week senator domenici joined them  saying that a serious change in course is needed and then on monday senator snowe told n b c news that the time has come for binding legislation to bring home most of our troops the senate republican comments are welcome but actions speak louder than words senate republicans can't just say that a change in direction is needed they have to actually help us change the course of the war and where exactly are the house republicans because their silence indicate that they will once again rubber stamp the president's failed iraq policy if they won't listen to us they should at least listen to respected members of their own party who are saying that we simply cannot continue on this same failed course mr speaker this democrats will once again demand change in iraq and it's time that our republicans report the resolution house calendar number eighty two house resolution five thirty one resolved that upon the adoption of this resolution it shall be in order to consider in the house the bill h r twenty six sixty nine to provide for reconciliation pursuant to section six zero one of the concurrent resolution on the budget for fiscal year two thousand and eight all points of order against consideration of the bill are waived except those arising under clause nine or ten of rules when the amendment in the nature of a substitute recommended by the committee on education and labor now printed in the bill modified by the amendment printed in part a of the report of the committee on rules accompanying this resolution shall be considered as adopted the bill as amended shall be considered as read all points of order against the bill as amended or waived the previous question shall be considered as ordered on the bill as amended the final passage without intervening motion except one one hour of debate on the bill as amended equally divided and controlled by the chairman and ranking minority member of the committee on education and labor to the amendment in the nature of a substitute printed in part b of the report of the committee on rules if offered by the gentleman from california mr mckeon or his designee which shall be in order without intervention of any point of order except those arising under clause nine or ten of rule twenty one shall be considered as read and shall be separately his resolution that was standing the operation of the previous question the chair may postpone further consideration of the bill to such time as may be designated by the speaker the gentleman from ohio brooke and i for one hour you mr speaker for the purpose of debate only i yield the customary thirty minutes to the gentleman from washington mr hastings alltime ilda during consideration of the roll is for debate only i ask unanimous consent that all members have five legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks and insert extraneous materials into the record that objection i yield myself such time as i may consume gentleman is recognized as much time as you may consume mr speaker h r s five thirty one provides for consideration of h r twenty six sixty nine the college cost reduction act of two thousand and seven under structured role the role provides one hour of debate equally divided and controlled by the chairman and ranking member of the committee on education and labor the role makes an order and provides appropriate waivers for a single amendment in the nature of a substitute offered by representative mckeon of california or his doesn't mean mr speaker educational opportunity is the backbone of what we are about and everything that makes this nation great for this reason i am very pleased to support the role in the underlying legislation that will give our students a real opportunity to go to college and give them the vital tools necessary to prepare them to enter the we'll work force and build a positive future the college cost reduction act addresses one of the most important and difficult issues facing our nation while access to higher education is more critical than ever for our younger generations the cost is rapidly moving out of reach for many low and middle income families this problem is nothing less than a crisis how many students have had their dreams shattered because they could not afford their tuition and how much potential has our nation lost because of the failure to address this issue if students cannot afford to get the education and training necessary for them to make a productive and positive impact in our communities it hurts us all and that's been in our younger generations not only improves their future but it helps our economy and our retired workers whom they will help to support and ensures our national security continued improvements in health outcomes as well as advances in manufacturing and technology improving access to higher education is not only about helping america's middle class and our students and families who are in need it's about strengthening america but instead of helping our students prepare themselves for a better future recent congresses and the administration chose to cut funding for student loan programs and have allowed this issue to become the crisis it is today it is time for priorities to change and this bill is part of making that happen to asian and fees a four year public colleges and universities have risen forty one percent after inflation since two thousand and one the typical american student now graduates from college with seventeen thousand five hundred dollars worth of debt if we do not take action immediately financial barriers will prevent at least four point four million high school graduates from attending a four year public college over the next decade this congress has a responsibility to help our students and our working families mr speaker i have witnessed the heartbreak of parents who work hard day in and day out have to tell their child that they cannot afford to send them to college i have listened to these struggling parents and heard the ache in their voices it's a story that is far too common it is unacceptable and we must take action and today we do h r two six six nine the college cost reduction act will provide the single largest increase in college aid since the g i bill and it will put college education back within reach of so many families h r two six six nine follows on the college student relief fact that passed overwhelmingly three hundred fifty six to seventy one in this new congress earlier this year that will cut interest rates in half on subsidized student loans over the next five years for the average student in the state of ohio at institutions like the university of akron and lorain county community college this means a savings of roughly four thousand and three hundred twenty dollars once the cuts are phased  it's estimated that our proposal will help roughly one hundred seventy five thousand students just in ohio alone and five point five million nationwide our bill increases the maximum pell grant scholarship by at least five hundred dollars over the next five years while also expanding eligibility to include and serve more students with financial need and ohio roughly two hundred twenty four thousand students will benefit from these changes to the program and nationwide over five point seven million students will benefit and another six hundred thousand will become eligible for the grand it's making the possibility of a college education for them a reality additionally this legislation recognizes the value of our public servants and it shows how much we respect what they do individuals working jobs that make our world turn teachers and firefighters nurses law enforcement officers librarians we provide up front to ition assistance to qualified undergraduate students who commit to teaching in public schools in high poverty communities or high need subject areas and we provide loan forgiveness for first responders law enforcement officers firefighters nurses public defenders prosecutors early childhood educators librarians and others are investing not only in the potential of individual students mr speaker we are investing in the strength of our communities and our country and the return on our investment as a nation and our students and people will without question provide an enormous return but our failure to invest likewise will have incredibly harmful consequences our bill makes clear we understand the importance of this investment and mr speaker to make a good bill even better the college cost reduction act will benefit all of these students and families at no new cost to taxpayers we make these important investments in education through government spending cuts with this bill we take the billions of excess taxpayer subsidies that have gone into the profit margins of private lenders and invest it in direct support for our students overall h r twenty six sixty nine will save almost twenty billion dollars in taxpayer money and reinvest that money in the needs of our students this is about where the priorities of our nation and this congress lie mr speaker as i said earlier the lack of access to higher education it is a crisis for our nation and it's a burden that no family in this great country should have to bear the college cost reduction act puts us in a position to help these families and assist our students who simply want to learn and be prepared to enter the workforce and contribute to society this bill does more than just pay lip service to the virtue of a college education today we act to help families students and our country mr speaker i reserve the balance of my time the gentleman from ohio reserve the balance of our time gentleman from washington thank you mr speaker and this is speaker i want to thank the generally from ohio has a sudden for you and me the customary thirty minutes and you myself as much time as i may consume in asking as consent to revise and extend my remarks  mr speaker earlier this year the democrat majority approved what i consider your responsible budget plan that calls for more spending now followed by a massive tax increases in the future their budget plan only call for one committee the education level and labor committee to find cost savings and that turned out mr speaker to be a mere seven hundred fifty million dollars over five years in comparison when republicans were in control the fiscal year two thousand and six budget resolution called on eight house and senate committees to find a total of thirty five billion dollars in savings over five years as a result congress passed and president bush signed into law the deficit reduction act which saved american taxpayers thirty eight billion dollars house resolution five thirty one provides for the consideration of the democrat majority is attempt to rein in spending the college cost reduction act however mr speaker this bill is nothing more than an illusion while the bill does find savings it means he spends most of it eighteen billion dollars to create nine new title meant programs these entitlement programs which grow automatically every year without congressional review pose a largest threat to our long term economic health a sensually these programs run on out of paula autopilot with no accountability to the taxpayers writing the check entitlement programs currently today make up well over half of the federal budget and then next decade will consume their we two thirds of our budget history has proven that once entitle not program is created it lives forever and even improving these programs has proven to be a very difficult task taxpayers will be paying the new bill will be paying for the new entitlement programs created under this proposal for at least five years and likely for many years to come thus wiping out any savings that may be achieved with this bill in the short term mr speaker i have to say that i share the goal of increasing access to higher education education in general is very important t future of our country but there are many approaches a democrat majority has chosen to take in this bill that shift the responsibility for personal decisions made by students to the taxpayers for instance this bill guarantees that borrowers no i'm where no matter how much they borrow will not have to pay more than fifteen percent of their income in loan payments and allows the borrowers to have the balance of their loans disappear disappear mr speaker after twenty years and thus be paid for by the american taxpayer this bill also requires those same taxpayers to pick up the outstanding student loan tab for public and spend sector employees after just ten years speaker while i agree we should encourage people to enter the public sector i feel this approach places too heavy a fiscal burden on american taxpayers i believe that would mean most to all that we can do to make education more affordable for those who wish to pursue their education so that more americans can sheaves the dream of graduating from college with tuitions costs on the rise students and or families face the inevitable question of how to pay for college education the cost of attaining a college degree has increased over the years and students are finding it increasingly difficult to pay college without financial assistance so i believe mr speaker that we must take a balanced approach that increases the transparency of higher education costs and targets aid to the neediest students while controlling spending and lower and lower in the deficit therefore mr speaker i will support the mccain substitute amendment which increases the maximum  three hundred fifty dollars next year and one hundred dollars thereafter and provides a plan for improve accountability with regard to tuitions cos if mccain a man is not adopted i will oppose the college cost reduction act which increases a maze of federal regulations and bureaucracy for students and parents to navigate direct more resources to institutions of higher higher education rather than students and creates new entitlement spending at the long term expense massachusetts recognized for four minutes thank you and i thank my colleague from ohio for you'll be the time mr speaker my home state of massachusetts is famous for the quality of its colleges and universities in the third congressional district alone which i represent there are fifteen colleges and universities some of these schools specialize in the fields of medicine nursing pharmacy and house and health sciences others are community and and other two year colleges that provide education and training for students to earn associate degrees transfer to four year institutions or upgrade their skills and experience in order to become more productive in their chosen careers we are privileged to have such internationally recognized colleges as clark university was the polytechnic institute at holy cross college in my district and i have many public and private institutions such as was just a college and assumption college which provide students with a well rounded advance education these schools attract a great diversity of students to central massachusetts each year over thirty thousand in the western area alone and h r two six six nine the college cost reduction act will help the students realize the dream of a college education without mortgaging their futures in the process this is speaker this bill overhauls the student aid system and provides debt relief in order to make college more affordable for students and their parents as others have noted it is the single largest investment in higher education since the g i bill and it provides these new benefits and no new cost to the taxpayers reducing excess subsidies that have been paid by the federal government to lenders in the student loan industry but this bill also supports it protects the ninety percent of student loan lenders that are nonprofit lenders or smaller community based lenders h r two six six nine recognizes their unique mission putting all their profits back into students and into our communities and the college cost reduction act provides a fee reduction for these lenders making them better able to compete with large national lenders and  serve students and their families the small lenders that make up the massachusetts educational financing authority for example provide students and families with straightforward information and advice on how to apply for and choose a college financing plan along advice they also provide low cost loan programs for parents and students h r two six six nine will allow these types of lenders to better serve the students and families of central massachusetts by making their loans even more affordable mr speaker i want to thank chairman miller and the members of the education and workforce committee for bringing us a bill that provides such substantial increases for the pell grant program initiatives to help control college cost increase funding for perkins loans greatest support for the critical upward bound program and restructuring the way in which students repay their loans if we look at the pell grant program alone over eighty seven thousand massachusetts students will benefit over the next five years from an estimated three hundred fifty seven million dollars in additional pell grant funding mr speaker the challenge of affordable education affects not just the poor but the middle class as well parents and students alike have been frustrated by the lack of action by the previous congressional leadership i love when i hear my colleague from washington say we all share the goal of helping struggling students be able to afford a college education well students don't need our sympathy they don't want to feel their pain they want to do something and for years they haven't done anything well today we are going to do something times have changed and today we will pass a bill that will make higher education a reality for countless students and contribute greatly to a brighter economic future we will not be able to complete compete in a global economy unless we have a well educated workforce and we need republicans have been a control the pell grants individually have nearly doubled in that link to time i think the students are being well served and they're in the they are responsible and i and i think that is a very very good policy and with that  minutes to my friend from minnesota and member of the education workforce committee mr klein jones minnesota's recognize for four minutes thank you speaker and i thank the gentleman for yielding mr speaker i rise today in strong strong opposition to this rule once again the majority has seen fit to stifle debate when considering significant legislation yesterday i and several other members of the education labor committee presented amendments to the members of the rules committee with the expectation that those amendments would be seriously considered it's now become apparent that that hearing was really just a facade the decision already been made to exclude those amendments if i had had the opportunity to offer my memet today under a fair rule house members would have seen that the concept of my m m it was simple to ensure that those most in need college graduates who serve the public interest and college students in need of government grants are the direct beneficiaries of federal interest rate reductions instead the majority is treated us to a show worthy of the best las vegas illusionist a reconciliation process intended to reduce the growth and growth in entitlements spending that instead creates nine new entitlement programs that's right the reconciliation process is designed to reduce the growth in entitlement spending to cut the federal deficit deficit and instead this bill creates nine that the underlying bill expands educational benefits for students a little sleight of hand instead reveals legislation that fails to target aide to those students most in need my rejected by the rules committee along party lines would have focused our limited federal funding on those college graduates that chose a path offering less monetary reward but serving arguably a much greater public purpose my achieve this goal by ensuring that those graduates who can pay their loans under a higher interest rate do so by a stablish in an income cap of sixty five thousand dollars for single graduates and one hundred thirty five thousand for married couples the income levels the existing student loan tax inductions are phased out after reaching that income level which is almost twice the average family income of the student eligible receive a subsidized student loan the interest rate for a loan would have reverted back to the current level of six point eight percent those graduates who may not have as high an income however would have seen their interest rates stay at the reduced level this includes of course and those most in need because they chose to serve the public interest members of the armed forces first responders nurses teachers and other graduates to choose careers in public service by adding a fair balanced income cap adjustment we would have generated additional savings that it could have been directed toward another truly deserving group those utilizing need based aid to the pell grant program unfortunately more than four hundred thousand students mr speaker are fully prepared to attend a four year college but will be unable to do so because of enormous financial barriers as a member of the education labor committee it is paramount for me to prioritize the expansion of secondary education access for low and middle income students whenever possible i am disappointed but sadly not surprised the majority has instead chosen to rely on the same tired strategy of expanding in title meant spending for institutions to the detriment of current college students struggling to pay their high tuitions cost you'll back minnesota is that the balance of this time gentleman from ohio mr speaker i yiel five minutes to the distinguished gentleman of distinguished member of the row ols committee from florida ms castor gentlewoman from florida is recognized for five minutes thank you and i thank my colleague miss sutton from ohio who is a true fighter for education reform in the working families of ohio and all americans mr speaker i strongly support the college cost reduction act under this rule as we are charting in historic new investment in our students and our communities all americans should salute the leadership of chairman george miller and speaker nancy pelosi for their leadership in education and this single largest investment in higher education since the nine hundred forty four i bill chairman miller on behalf of the students colleges and universities in the state of florida i thank you for your dedication and we also thank you in the state of florida because you work tire tirelessly with me and my colleague from the rules committee mr hastings to ensure that students from states like florida that have low tuitions and low state support have access to additional need based the passage of this act will increase access to college by making it more affordable the cost of higher education than this country has skyrocketed over recent years thousands of students are left with overwhelming debt after graduation due to higher student loan rates and declining financial aid some may not make it to the college classroom at all because it has become so cos prohibited in florida the average dad after college is more than eighteen thousand dollars per student but in america no young person with a desire to learn should be barred from moving on to college due to financial hurdles and this act removes many of those hurdles today the college costs are duction act cuts student loan interest rates in half and increases pell grants by at least five hundred dollars per student over the next five years in the state of florida alone federal loan and pell grant aid will increase by seven hundred sixty two million dollars that will benefit over three hundred and forty thousand students in my home area of the tampa bay area we have the ninth largest university in the country in the university of south florida over forty thousand students in that university in addition to the university of tampa the hillsboro community college manatee community college and st petersburg college let the message go forth to those students and those families that help is on the way that they will not have to struggle with those higher student loan interest rates they can depend on a little more help when it comes to the pell grant this bill also acknowledges that some high school students need a little extra help to be college ready particularly students who may be the first in their family to attend college we're going to keep these students on track to go to college and stand up for them and protect federal dollars for their success we owe a debt of gratitude to the gentleman from virginia mr bobby scott because he offered an amendment to this bill to maintain the upward bound program i'm proud to support his amendment which is contained in this bill that nationwide will protect the upward bound program in my hometown of tampa this means standing up for those students i met on monday i met with students at the great middleton high school in tampa jasmine hendricks and clifton tyson are students in the upward bound program at the university of south florida imagine a high school student that takes twenty saturdays out of out of their life to learn about what it means to go to college and then they spend their summers there to typically the first ones in their family to go to college and we know that if they achieve their high school diploma they'll have a higher salary but if they achieve their college degree they're set up for success in life and our communities benefit jasmine said to me as her eyes welled up with tears that before upward bound i knew i wanted to pursue higher education but there was no way jasmine considers her upward bound program her second family she said there was no money i just couldn't see a way for me to get to college after high school then upward bound comes along and introduces us to the fact there are college scholarships grants and help clifton who's an athlete said that he used to see sports is his only avenue to college but since starting it up or down he now says sports is his second gateway he wants to go to college for academics it was completely unfortunate that the white house targeted the upward bound program for budget cuts in this day and age when we're spending so much money overseas up to ten billion dollars in iraq and they target monies for folks that need to go to college mr speaker the college cost reduction act is a momentous and fiscally irresponsible legislation that will create nine new entitlement programs and mr x billions of aid toward colleges universities college graduates and even philanthropic organizations rather than low income students and parents and those who need it the most my colleagues who are around in the last congress may remember that when we passed a real budget reconciliation bill the education and workforce committee found some eighteen billion dollars plus in savings two thirds of which we directed toward deficit reduction and one third of which we directed toward increased student benefits real students such as higher loan limits more grant aid for low income high achieving students and loan forgiveness for high demand teachers unfortunately h r twenty six sixty nine takes us in a drastically different direction the rule before us provides for continued abuse of the budget reconciliation process as a backdoor way to implement significant changes to programs best addressed through regular order not a single committee hearing has been held on this bill the potential impact of many of its student loan cuts has never been weighed and no one has provided adequate reasons regarding why or how many of the nine new entitlement programs created under the bill are necessary or fiscally responsible so by creating a bundle of new entitlement programs complete with new bureaucracy rules regulations this bill places billions of dollars in new federal spending on autopilot with no accountability to taxpayers whatsoever instead this measure could be improved by infusing more savings into the p pell is a proven success of this help millions of young people attend college and i'm grateful of that this rule will give the house an opportunity to move billions out of new mr record in title man spending and then to pal later today even so the rule allows for the continuation of a budget reconciliation process that has been flawed abused and used as a springboard for billions in new entitlement spending as a result i urge my colleagues to join me in opposing the rule and the underlying bill and i yield back only of back the balance of this time gentleman from ohio mr speaker i yield three minutes to the gentleman from virginia a distinguished member of the committee on education and labor mr scott gentleman from virginia chairman miller and subcommittee chairman in a hosa for their work on this bill we know that higher education is is crucial not only to the individual but also to our nation we know for example that the more you learn the more you earn that we know that those who are in college much less likely to be involved and welfare much less likely to be involved in crime it's also critical education is critical for our national economy we know that there the economic and future economic future of the united states depends on the success of our higher education our education policy we live in a high tech information a condom e and so the number of college students that we have important economic resource we can't afford to have any of our children fail to achieve full potential because they were not able to afford to go to college now many there are many improvements in the bill the cost of education through student loans will be made more affordable there are significant increases in pell grant one of the major increase first and in the last four years five hundred dollars over the next four years will be the increase in the maximum pell grant award we know this is critical because in the last four years college education has gone up about fifty five percent between in the last five six years it's gone up about fifty five percent for the last four years the pell grant didn't go up at all this bill makes the difficult investments in historical a black colleges and universities and other minority serving institutions a significant portion of the students at these colleges and universities are first generation students we know that they often come from low income families for support so support of these institutions is critical we know that these colleges offer an opportunity that otherwise would not be there this bill also makes improvements and upward bound to address it provides additional funds for upward bound because many qualified upward bound programs were not funded this year because the program just ran out of money upward bound focuses on those who have the potential to go to college but may not just because they don't exist don't don't think they're expected to go to college this bill makes critical improvements in the upward bound program and make sure that those qualified programs can get funded  chairman mr mr speaker the college cost reduction act will reduce the cost of going to college will enable many going to go to college that otherwise could not have afforded to go to college chairman miller's amendment makes improvements not given an opportunity consent to consider this amendment let me first of all make it abundantly clear i am a very strong supporter of the upward bound program and there's been some preliminary studies in the department of education that indicate the program may not be living up to its potential i'm not sure i believe those but currently the department of education has announced a rigorous random assignment study considered the considered the gold standard of research methodology used to evaluate the average on programs impact on students most in need of services i believe this is a very important study to determine exactly what works best and upper bound and how we can improve it unfortunately during the education labor committee's consideration of the college cost reduction act the committee adopted in management by voice vote to prohibit this important of a study of the up or down program not so much because they were against the program strong advocate for research funding i know that it is imperative that we conduct rigorous evaluations using the most sound scientifically robust methodology to identify best practices in federal programs and i wish that my amendment had been made in order it is unfortunate that this bill does not promote good evaluation which is critical to ensuring that taxpayer dollars are spent wisely and effectively it also vote in our non controversial in particular and i'm dismayed that an amendment i offered about sustainability programs at universities is removed by the manager's amendment i thought the speaker pelosi has high priority on environmental improvement and saving energy that the new majority would accept that amendment as they did in committee and well that let it remain in so that we can wake up some of our higher educational institution and get them to adopt sustainability programs else so establishing academic programs so that future students can be educated in sustainability prison principals and that we in fact as a nation can go green much more rapidly for these for these reasons i plan to vote no on this unfair rule at this time has expired gentleman from ohio mr speaker at this time i yelled three minutes to the distinguished gentleman from maryland a leader on education policy mr van hollen gentleman from maryland is recognized for three minutes i thank you mr speaker let me thank the gentle lady from ohio for the time and thank her for leadership on education issues speaker this is a good day for students around the country and it's a good day for all americans and i commend the education and labor committee for their good work on this legislation during the first one hundred hours of this new congress when we passed legislation to cut the interest rates on student loans and half many of us stood in the well here and said this is just the beginning that was an important first step to making college more affordable and giving millions of students a chance to further their educations and to brighten their futures we stand here today to take the next step the largest investment in student loans since the g i bill we are keeping the promise that we made to the american people and american students cutting interest rates on student loans in half and now increasing pell grants raising the cap on low interest better loans and making it easier for students who are being pinched by other costs and families to pay back the payments on their interest rates and their loans in addition this bill makes it easier for young people to enter public service and serve their communities by extending loan forgiveness to law enforcement officers first responders librarians and nurses and giving more assistance than ever to undergraduates who commit to teaching in high need locations or subject areas and as we make these very vital changes to give more opportunities to students we do so in a fiscally responsible manner by cutting exorbitant fees to lenders mr speaker by opening the doors to college and maintaining a balanced budget we are working to ensure the best possible future for our young people by increasing the opportunity incentive to enter public service we harness the ability and ambition of our best and brightest and by helping students achieve advanced degrees we are ensuring that the united states remains on the forefront of innovation and discovery in an increasingly competitive global economy mr speaker i think we would all agree there is no better investment that we can make than in the area of education students and middle america are feeling the pinch of rising costs in many areas this helps provide them greater means to open the door of college and opportunity to more and more americans i encourage my colleagues to join with all of us in taking this very important step for the students of this country and indeed for all america thank you mr speaker jim of maryland you time gentleman from washington thank you mr speaker i please feel three minutes to another member of the education workforce to meet us bigger of illinois gentleman from illinois recognize the three minutes i thank the gentleman for yielding mr speaker i rise in opposition to the rule in the underlying bill h r twenty two six six nine the so called college cost reduction act like many of my colleagues a serious concern about the new mandatory spending that is included in this legislation h r two six six nine creates nine new entitlement programs most of which do not attempt to address the hurdles many prospective and current college students face mandatory spending and title meant programs already consumed the largest portion of the federal budget the uncontrolled girls of entitlement programs particularly medicare medicaid and social security will eventually consume the entire federal budget by two thousand and fifty if left unchecked that means the federal government would have no available funds for programs other than entitlements no military highways court law enforcement or border security soeharto how are we addressing this looming crisis today well as soon as we are addressing it by creating new entitlement programs nine of them the new programs created under this legislation will not undergo the annual scrutiny of the appropriations progress process regardless of the success or failure of these programs the american taxpayer are constituents welcome to to pay for these new programs available to anyone that meets the basic qualifications another serious concern is that some of the mandatory spending in h r twenty six sixty nine is directed towards colleges universities and sole topic organizations traditionally entitlement programs have been directed at individuals who are in need of the federal assistance such as medicare social security food strands and student loans directing the mandatory funding under this legislation to institutions instead of low and middle income students who need the assistance most sense the wrong message about the priorities of this congress during the educational labor committee markup i supported a substitute amendment offered by mr making and that would have invested twelve million dollars in the pell grant program more than double the increase provided by this bill and also reduced to the plus pro a loan interest rates for the families federal family education loan program to match the interest rate in the direct loan program currently seven point nine percent the funding provided in the making and substitute would have been directed to those who need the assistance most the students without creating new programs an additional barrack receive for students and parents to navigate finally i have concerns about maintaining the viability of the lp in the last in the last congress the education and workforce committee made twenty billion dollars in changes to f e l p by eliminating or reducing federal subsidies to lenders just two years later we are back again squeezing student loan lenders my concern is that this legislation is using the reconciliation process as a backdoor attempt to kill f f l e p mr speaker i'm disappointed that i have to oppose the rule in this legislation there are few there are a few provisions in this legislation that i believe would help college students and address some concerns and areas of academic need however i could not support a bill that creates new mandatory spending for institutions at a time when we are addressing the general very nice for an additional thirty seconds the gentleman who spent a long career in education and also a member of the education workforce committee mr bishop of utah trying to don't recognize that three minutes thank you mr speaker a couple of years ago i was in the position of the gentle lady from ohio managing some of the amendments on some of the bills with the rules i'm sorry on this floor and often i wish a grand in offended by people who would complain about amendments not being made in order when they had been fully vetted and defeated in the committee i want you know as i rise to talk about one amendment that was not made in order this is not necessarily the case that even though i had offered in committee i withdrew it in committee in the spirit of comedy to try and work towards a solution for this floor not realizing that the rules committee would callously deny all amendments that would be made in order on this particular bill reconciliation is already a procedural process that limits the right of the minority to have input to then further restrict their rights by not recognizing any amendments and indeed taking out amendments that were made in order that were passed in the full committee is something that is certainly not the definition of open government the issue i would choose which i wish to address so i will continue to talk about because philosophically i think it's larger than the bill we're actually discussing the department of education drafted the language i presented not to say they endorse it but to let you know this was not a cavalier but a serious effort at solving a problem in fact the amendment was passed last year by this body in the higher ed reauthorization act but unfortunate was one of the bills the senate refused to accept or consider during the last year i to publicly thank mr kildee the subcommittee chairman for speaking to me about this amendment mr mccain the ranking member and his staff are talking to us at length about this amendment also the department of education to the full committee chairman i wish to apologize part of my process is always talk about these types of mamet's the sit down with the ranking member as well as the chairman to explain my purpose and intent six different times since the since the committee met i have i have had made an effort to try and meet with the full camembert both the chairman of  committee and each time those efforts rebuffed so i apologize to him for not doing what i think should be the normal process last time we did a reconciliation bill there was a new entitlement that was inserted on the insistence of the senate which should not have been there that was the wrong process but it did a stablish an increase in a new pell grant program for which i like and it it required this pell grant to go to those who had a rigorous academic schedule something else i like but it also gave the department of education the right to establish criteria which would drive curriculum that's the part i cannot accept in the charter the education department it was forbidden for them to have this power in federal statutes it's forbidden for them to have this power state constitutions forbid it yet this program has opened the door for future abuse in the committee it was asked should all states have common standards to allow the federal government to establish those common standards gives the federal government power taken from parents and local school boards to drive curriculum decisions it's almost like saying well can't we be partially pregnant now if the department of education has the ability to establish some curriculum decisions they also have inherently the ability to sabotage all curriculum decisions even though the current department of education is trying hard not to abuse this power by still saying there are four broad areas which qualif they in the cells have admitted that it needs to be refined and what the future department of education with not the same kind of approach would have simply means that there can be abuse of the system in the future a most curriculum are always going to be driven specially of electives by a teacher other curriculum is driven by graduation requirements the curriculum can also be driven by outside requirements from the four colleges and they do in utah decided that students should have two years of foreign languages before they go to college quad the enrollment in foreign language programs quadrupled when the federal government can dangle out money for pell grants by taking specific classes that will drive curriculum decisions and it is philosophically wrong to give them that kind of power in this bill there is much good much the good has already been stated in forms of hyperbole there is also much bad in all five when this program to which i object was created it was the wrong thing to do this particular bill has nine different new entitlements which are also the wrong thing to do so i am assuming this is probably about nine times as bad there is a poor and abusive procedure when we deny amendments on the floor and you deny amendments that were passed in committee and remove them without having the chance to address them again so i and i will both vote against speaker i thank my friend from pascoe for yielding and i congratulate him on his fine management of this rule and i thank my friend from ohio for her thoughtful remarks i have to say mr speaker that as i've been listening to the debate from my friends on the other side of the aisle they continually have said this is a great day for education but the tragic thing is that this is a horrible day for future generations why will as our friend from utah mr bishop the former rules committee member just stated there are nine new entitlement programs included in this measure that is designed for budget savings reconciliation is all about trying to rein in the reach of the government trying to bring about a modicum of fiscal responsibility and yesterday upon the rules committee the distinguished chair of the committee my friend from martinez california mr miller when asked why it is that we are making these mandatory instead of discretionary meeting that we'd have the opportunity to look at them again the opportunity to possibly make modifications and then he said well we have authorization bills that are done and they end up dying and so what we need to do is we need to make these programs mandatory well mr speaker every single democrat and republican regularly talks about the need to rein in the so called mandatory spending we spend our time around this place talking about discretionary spending earmarks and what we expend on the discretionary level and it is a drop in the bucket compared to the mandatory programs that are out there as we all know the social security medicare veterans benefits a wide range of mandatory programs exist and this bill that is designed to bring about a reduction in spending establishes nine new mandatory programs and so mr speaker it's very obvious that we need to defeat this rule and bring about a reconciliation bill that in fact will not expand the number of mandatory programs and we have an opportunity to do that right now when we go into this vote mr hastings is going to seek to defeat the previous question so that we'll have an opportunity to make an order the castle amendment very very respected member from delaware the former governor of the state who is an expert on dealing with our nation's education needs offer an amendment the rules committee that was unfortunately denied that amendment simply said that as we look at these nine mandatory programs that are put into place we should instead of make them and he goes ahead and stablish them but instead of making the mandatory he makes them discretionary discretionary so that we will have an opportunity as members of congress to look again at those issues and the savings that are created go to what everyone has said they want to increase and that is the pell grant program and mr speaker i am proud to regularly support the notion of our global leadership role when it comes to trade when it comes to technology and i recognize that it is absolutely imperative for the united states of america to have the best education system possible so that we can remain competitive globally i just come back from with a number of my colleagues from indonesia from mongolia and other countries in asia over the independence day break and one of things that we found is that education is a key issue in these countries and we all know that in the united states of america we seem to be falling behind and so it is imperative that we do all that we can to ensure that there is access to education for our young people and i believe that we can put into place policies that will allow us to make education more affordable and more accessible without a dramatic increase in the number of mandatory programs that mr bishop the speaker talked about his and meant that was denied totally by the rules committee the only thing made in order in this bill is a manager's amendment that will actually be self executed not considered on the floor and debated but self executed with if this rule in fact passes and the amendment in the nature of a substitute that's going to be offered by the ranking member of the committee mr mckeon but other than that all the other amendments that were offered democrats and republicans were denied an opportunity to offer any amendments by california colleague mr bilbray had a thoughtful amendment dealing with the basic pilot program as it relates to illegal immigration and all it was saying was that institutions to get get federal funding are required to comply with the basic pilot program as it relates to the hiring potentially hiring people who are in this country illegally that amendment is not going to be able to be debated or even considered in this measure ailerons had amendments that he sought to make in order mr klein other very very thoughtful proposals not one of them made an order and so mr speaker i urge my colleagues to join with mr hastings as he moves to defeat the previous question so that we can make mr cassels amendment an order that would allow us to take the expansive mandatory spending and shifted to discretionary spending in the savings that we have go to the pell grant program and if we do in  a speaker in one thousand amendments were add to the committee on rules and sadly the democrats only only allowed one single minute to be considered as the ranking member pointed out and even more concerning is that this rule provides at the miller manager's amendment shall be considered as adopted once this resolution is adopted if in fact it is adopted they've carefully chosen to self execute this amendment which is not allow for a separate debate or clarification on the memmott what it does and the maneuver prohibits members from voting specifically on the miller's manager mehmet members should be aware that the miller manager's amendment reduces reduces the amount of short term savings to taxpayers in addition the adoption if this rule is adopted could be fast tracked it will be fast tracked through the senate and therefore protected from filibuster so i'm asking my colleagues to not only vote no on his restrict rule but also to vote no on the previous question so they could amend the rule to allow the house to consider the memmott offered by mr castle of delaware and provide the appropriate waivers and as a ranking member point out the castle amendment  in the entitlements in this bill i think that's a very very important policy statement and further the savings from these entitlements would go to increase the pell grants by one hundred dollars in next two years and fifty the vote on the previous question that objection and with that mr speaker i yield back the balance of my time germany of act of violence of time gentleman from ohio thank you mr speaker we have heard here today why we mass must pass this rule and pass the college cost reduction act and i want to commend and thank chairman miller for his tremendous leadership and getting this done as i said earlier educational opportunity is the backbone of our nation and our students our families and our country have waited long enough for this to happen with all due respect to my colleagues on the other side who seem intent on further delay twelve years of republican ru provided ample opportunity to act on this issue and pass a bill to act on amendments the american people cannot wait any longer this is an issue that many of us here in congress hear about when we return to our districts because a lot of families are worrying about how they will pay for their children's education and today we are going to work with them their government is going to work with them and not against them i would like to share today on the floor a letter that i bet mirrors letters that every one of our members receive this is a letter that came to me from a constituent and i'll share part of it it says is anything ever going to be done about the exorbitant cost of a college education in this country how are the middle class supposed to save for retirement and also pay the exorbitant cost of a college education for our children this country seems to be obsessed with debt because the colleges in the high schools as well tell you that you should expect to be in a certain amount of debt upon graduation from college i guess if you're wealthy it's not an issue so the middle class are the ones that are left struggling with such an importance put on having a college education to get a decent paying job in this country how are our children supposed to be able to afford a home and a car upon graduation from college when they will be so far in debt with student loans as for the parents any raises we receive go toward the continually increasing cost of medical insurance gasoline utilities property taxes and such raw i know in my own case we seem to be going backwards instead of forward and by no means do we live extract again we are beyond our means i am looking forward to hearing from you well today this constituent hears from me and hears from this congress and i ask all of my colleagues to join me and supporting this role for my constituent and her daughter i urge a yes vote on the previous question and on the roll i yield back the balance of my time and i move the previous question on the resolution the question is on ordering the previous question on a resolution those rise a sufficient number having risen the age and those are ordered members a record their votes by electronic device pursuant to clauses eight and nine of rule twenty this fifteen minute vote on ordering the previous question will be followed by five minute votes on adopting house resolution five thirty one suspending the rules in adopting house resolution five twenty six and suspending the rules and passing so s seventeen  the fifteen minute vote first recorded vote of the day the house has been debating h r twenty six sixty nine regarding student loans and grants this is a procedural vote previous question vote here a last chance to change the bill before final passage as republicans are seeking to include the consideration of an amendment by representative castle of delaware it's a fifteen minute vote of a couple of five minute votes a final passage vote and suspension bills debated earlier the house has a number of other suspension bills today as well the underlying bill here twenty six sixty nine would cut one thousand billion dollars in federal subsidies to lenders redirecting it to student aid school grants including student loans and grants that would have loan interest rates to three point four percent for five years the bill would also increase the maximum pell grant to fifty two hundred dollars and raise federally backed loan limits to the thirty thousand dollars just over thirty thousand dollars for undergrads now the white house has issued a threat on this reading from the dow jones newswire report this morning they write that white house officials warned tuesday they would recommend a veto of legislation cutting student lender subsidies because the savings would be used to cut bar interest rates not to increase the program it fails to target aide to the neediest students currently in college and creates new mandatory federal programs and policies that are poorly designed would have significant long term cost to the taxpayer the white house office of management and budget s tuesday the report continues that under the bill to be considered democrats made good on a campaign promise to cut federally guaranteed stone student loan interest rates from a maximum of six point eight percent to three point four percent again first vote here procedural vote on that bill it's fifteen minutes and meanwhile the continues to dominate the senate debate and discussion over the defense programs bill the defense authorization bill they have a  shortly in the senate on an amendment by senator webb meanwhile over in the house senator or speaker pelosi and her democratic colleagues haven't iraq war policy bill that is going to be on the schedule this week this week the bill r twenty nine fifty six would require u s troops to begin withdrawing from iraq within one hundred twenty daves of an act of the legislation it would also require all troops to be redeployed from iraq by april first of next year except for a limited group that would stay to continue to train iraqi troops and provide security that bill that house bill is currently scheduled for consideration in the rules committee today and it's likely to come up on the house floor on thursday first of several votes here on the house floor a fifteen minute vote on the previous question regarding the bill on student loans and grants the first recorded vote here in the house on this on this wednesday morning they're voting a procedural vote here previous question vote on h r twenty six sixty nine student loans and grants bill which cuts nineteen billion dollars in federal subsidies to lenders and redirects that to student aid and school grants it also cuts student loan interest rates this is a procedural vote a vote on the rule is likely next members are the rule itself would would allow for one hour of debate with a substitute amendment allowed that also debatable for an hour while a number of other votes later on today on suspension bills that were debated yesterday they didn't get a vote yesterday usually they would vote six thirty or so on a tuesday on those suspension bills didn't vote yesterday because of the inclement weather that rolled through the nation's capital and several other area he is on the east coast so they postponed some of those votes until today also on capitol hill today we are covering a hearing this morning with former white house political director sara taylor she is testifying on the white house role in the firings of u s attorneys that's live now on c span three c span radio is also covering that and the senate is just beginning a vote on an amendment to the defense programs bill this is the first amendment vote this one by senator webb of virginia would require active duty forces to be guaranteed as much time home as they serve while deployed it takes sixty votes to move that forward vait debate on defense programs is likely to last in the senate for a couple of weeks the wall street journal writing on that debate in the senate on iraq reports that the tough rhetoric came as senators face the senate faces first test today republican demands that all war related amendments demand a sixty vote supermajority before being added to a pending defense bill the high threshold is part of a strategy to prevent defections and to buy time to prepare for what will be a major fight in september but this morning's vote on the first amendment is a difficult one for republicans since it addresses readiness concerns and the time troops must get at home between deployments to iraq again that vote is just under way we're covering that as usual on c span too and you can follow that that at that vote as it as it continues and one more note on iraq today the associated press is reporting that a high ranking administration official is headed to capitol hill today to try to shore up eroding support for the war national security adviser stephen hadley his visit comes as republicans increasingly question the effectiveness of administration policy and lawmakers debate bringing troops home you're watching live house coverage on c span here on the house floor a procedural vote on h r twenty six sixty nine student loans and grants bill reauthorizing a number of student loans and grants programs that also cuts in half the student loan interest rate we mentioned earlier the white house veto threat on this and down jones news wires writing that under the bill to be considered democrats made good on a campaign promise to cut federally guaranteed student loan interest rates from a maximum of six point eight percent to three point three point four percent the white house argues that such a cut doesn't target lower income students while student loan bars tend to be middle class the vast majority of pell grant recipients come from families earning less than the median income the white house also criticized the bill for allowing the interest rate to revert to six point eight percent after five years calling it a quote budgetary gimmick that hides the costs of extending this misguided proposal also on capitol hill today the senate is continuing debate on defense policy and a number of amendments are likely on iraq including the very first one this morning from senator webb a vote is under way right now over in the senate a an amendment requiring active duty forces to be guaranteed as much home time as they have served while deployed and that vote under way now it's also interrupting the hearing with the judiciary committee hearing from white house political director former director sara taylor or and that coverage will continue on c span three and c span radio once the the senate vote has has wrapped up and it looks like the house will also get a chance to vote on iraq war policy and speaker pelosi has announced that h r twenty nine fifty six will be considered this week and that's like be coming up for debate on the house floor tomorrow here on the house floor this morning the first business is h r two thousand and six sixty nine student loan the loans and grants reauthorization bill this is a procedural vote if the a rule passes the the have up to two hours one hour of general debate and an hour on the substitute amendment so a couple hours of debate still to come on h r twenty six sixty nine it's also likely tomorrow that the house will vote or will debate a bill on iraq war policy h r twenty nine fifty six requiring u s troops to begin withdrawing from iraq within one hundred twenty days of an accident of the legislation speaker pelosi announced that it will be on the floor this week and that's likely to come up tomorrow and we'll have live coverage of that obviously we want to pass along this word to from the associated press that cindy sheehan's announced her run against speaker pelosi in two thousand and eight if the san francisco congresswoman doesn't move to impeach bush president bush reading from the a p story by july twenty third bidding farewell to her former peace camp near president bush's ranch cindy sheehan began a two week trek toward washington d c on tuesday with her sights set on house speaker nancy pelosi the story reports quote i know what californians care about said sheehan who plans to run as an independent they don't care about the ruling power elite she in first told the associated press on sunday about her plans to challenge the top ranking democrat she made it official tuesday at so called camp casey named after her twenty four year old son who died in iraq you can read more stories about the iraq war policy and about activities on the hill on our website cap news dot or capital news dot org and to take the capital news poll of the day which asks you about secretary chertoff comments yesterday he said that he has a gut feeling that al qaeda is planning a major terrorist attack in the u s this summer our poll question asked you if you think that  ordered members a record their votes by electronic device this is a five minute vote this is a vote on the rule for h r twenty six sixty nine reauthorizing college student loan programs it's a five minute vote if it passes the rules allow for one hour of general debate with the substitute amendment allowed the beta bill for one hour as well the bill itself cuts one thousand billion dollars in federal subsidies to lenders redirecting redirecting it to student aid and to school grants it cuts in half student loan interest rates to three point four percent for five years and increases the maximum to fifty two hundred dollars raises the federally backed loan limit to thirty thousand dollars five thirty thousand five hundred dollars for undergrads and the the white house issued a veto threat against the bill on tuesday there's a five minute vote a vote on the rule we have a couple of suspension bills to be voted on as well following this also today in washington and at the white house they're unveiling a new briefing room or remodeled briefing room we're covering the briefing today at noon you'll see it later in our program schedule with tony snow mr president bush and mrs bush this morning cut the ribbon in the white house briefing room and media work area the associated press says president bush says it will make things better off for the media and future presidents the old f d r era swimming pool under the briefing room now houses racks of video equipment and five hundred seventy miles of cable on capitol hill today here in the house the legislation the house has been debating since they came in today at ten or ten thirty or so is h r twenty six sixty nine reauthorizing student loan programs this is a vote on the rule for that bill and if it passes the have an hour of debate on the bill with a substitute amendment allowed also debatable for an hour they have a number of suspension bills to debate today a number of votes carried over from yesterday because they were unable at the usual time of six thirty because of inclement weather thunderstorms in the in the washington area also on capitol hill today the senate today is continuing with debate on the defense programs for fiscal year two thousand and eight the defense authorization with sara taylor former white house political director and it is delayed slightly because of that vote for one ninety five and a vote here on a bill the better yesterday supporting home ownership and responsible lending h r s five twenty six it's a five minute vote here on the house f the last vote in a series five minute vote on s seventeen zero one which would extend temporary medicaid coverage to low income families with children during transition to a new job this is a five minute vote and following this the house will return to debate in our general debate on the college loan reauthorization bill and also add an hour of debate on the substitute amendment just a few minutes ago in the senate the senate voted to block the webb amendment on the defense programs  and like this congressional quarterly online senate voted fifty six to forty one to reject limiting debate on an amendment by senator jeff jim webb of virginia mandating minimum intervals between overseas deployments of u s military units  reporting continues webb withdrew his amendment after it failed to get the sixty votes needed to limit debate senate's debating the fiscal two thousand and eight defense authorization mather measure and over in the house here in the house tomorrow house speaker nancy pelosi has indicated that they will have an iraq war policy on the schedule a bill h r twenty nine fifty six requiring u s troops to begin withdrawing from iraq within one hundred twenty days of an act many of the legislation for the bill would require all troops to be redeployed from iraq by a first two thousand and eight except for a limited group that would stay to continue to train iraqi troops and provide security bills in front of the rules committee today up for consideration there and it's likely to be here on the house floor tomorrow just under a minute left to n a s vote on s seventeen zero one which it extends temporary medicaid coverage to low income families with children during transitions to a new job still to come a couple of hours of debate on h r twenty six sixty nine this is that cuts one thousand billion dollars in federal subsidies to lenders redirecting it redirecting it to student aid and school grants it would also cut in half student loan interest rates to three four three point four percent for five years and increases the maximum fifty two hundred dollars and raises federally backed loan limits to thirty thousand dollars five hundred for undergraduates debate on that bill coming up next on the house f six two thirds being in the affirmative the rules are suspended the bill is passed and without objection a motion to reconsider is laid on the table to come to order will members please take their discussion to the back of the chamber for what purpose for what purpose the gentleman from california arrived this is speaker pursuant to house resolution five thirty one i call up a charge twenty six sixty nine and ask for it to media consideration the clerk will report the title of the bill union counter number one twenty eight h r twenty six sixty nine a bill to provide for reconciliation pursuant to section six zero one of the concurrent resolution on the budget for fiscal year two thousand and pursu considered as read after one hour of debate on the bill as amended it shall be in order to consider the amendment in the nature of a substitute printed in part b of the report if offered by the gentleman from california mr mckeon or his design which shall be considered as read and shall be separately debatable for one hour equally divided and controlled by the proponent and an opponent the gentleman from california mr miller and the gentleman from california mr mc will the members in the aisles please take their conversations the back of the chamber reconciliation instructions of the budget resolution the committee was tasked to decrease the deficit by seven hundred fifty million dollars without reducing assistance that makes college more affordable to students in keeping with that policy this is significant we will significantly reduce the costs that placed college out of reach for far too many students today this bill represents the largest effort to help students and families pay for college since one thousand nine hundred eighty four when the congress passed the g i bill which helped millions of veterans go to college the first generation to do so under that legislation for years college costs are rising rapidly in a far outstripping the families ability to pay for them students are graduating with more debt than ever before and are working harder to pay back the loans of which they borrowed to pay for their college education several hundred thousand students a year now decide to forego a college education even though they are completely qualified fully prepared to go to college because they don't know how they will pay for it or how they will manage the debt that they will inherit when they graduate recognizing this need h r twenty six sixty nine demonstrates our commitment to growing in strength america's middle class by making college more affordable and accessible for all qualified students it also recognizes our our commitment to those who are less fortunate for low income families to make sure that we increase the pell grants that are available to their students and also low cost loans to the those same students who need to borrow beyond the beyond the pell grant the college costs we duction act which passed the committee in education labor with bipartisan support moved to college financial aid by roughly eighteen billion dollars over the next five years and this bill does so in a fiscally responsible way we are committed to the page you go budget rules and we honor that commitment with this legislation h r twenty six sixty nine recognizes that we have an obligation to make sure that students our students are if they are have the maximum opportunity to take advantage of a college education and that they need access to that education they need preparation for that education they need success while they there and they need completion of their education to do that we make sure that regardless of their backgrounds that they will be prepared for college they will have access to higher education they will graduate to achieve their goals and they will not be so burdened with  manageable debt that that becomes a failure that builds the bill does that by for low income students increasing the pell grant five hundred dollars over the next over the next four years this is a very significant increase in the pell grant as many know the president promised many years ago that he would have it up to the five thousand one hundred dollars and the fact of the matter is it was that four thousand and fifty dollars they failed to do to increase the  it cuts it cuts in half the interest rates for subsidized loans for hardworking families that are going to borrow money students that are borrowing money we will cut their interest rates in half from six point eight percent two to three point four percent this will sa world they will not have to commit more than if they decide not to to commit more than fifteen percent of their income to pay back the loans so they can enter those professions that may not have great starting wages but over time in that career they will build up they will build up dollars for those students who go to college and they get it they get they get their degrees and they want to enter professions and serving the public they want to be first responders they want to be nurses they want to be firefighters and public defenders and prosecutors and special education teachers  early childhood teachers we offer them a five thousand dollar forgiveness of their loans if they stay in that field for for five years we under no that in each one of these areas there is a crisis in attracting people to those to those field many in congress hundreds of members of congress of co authors legislation to provide loan forgiveness for some of these professions this bill in fact funds that loan forgiveness for those for those and for those individuals we also increase the loan limits so that students will have greater access to more money to pay for the increasing cost of college and not have to go to the private market be able to continue to take advantage of the subsidies provided in the fed in the federal loan program minority students are able to provide the services to make sure that those students who are fully qualified to go to college who are prepared to go to college in fact stay in college so we don't have that we don't have a continuation of the situation we have today were all too often because services aren't providing the college to help those students stand college those students end up out of college no diploma a lot of debt and we want to make sure that that in fact doesn't happen so today this legislation provides a great deal of promise and a great deal of assistance and a great deal of resources to those students and their families who are sitting down figuring out how they're going to pay for this college education that is so incredibly valuable today if you're going to fully participate in the in the american economic system if you're going to participate in our democratic society this is a very very important piece of legislation this is legislation that is designed to help these students attain that to be able to pay for that for that education we do something else in this legislation we are we set up a partnership where we go to the private sector to wealthy individuals to corporations the foundation and we tell them for every dollar that they will put up to pay for essential apell eligible student to complete their education without going into debt we will match them fifty cents on the dollar we're told by those individuals who have actively been participating in raising money for these students that this should allow them to raise hundreds of millions of dollars additionally because of that because of that match to have that public private partnership pursuing one of the great goals of this democratic society which is to make sure that students from any part of american society who is prepared to go to college can in fact go to college so we not only have the government helping them out we also have private citizens corporations philanthropic organizations and in some cases even local governments if they decide this is good for their economy and we will provide a match to help them do that this is a comprehensive bill it recognizes the complex needs of families and students to gain access to college to pay for college and to succeed in their in their employment afterwards and i would urge my colleagues to support this legislation and i reserve the balance of my time on the thing californians are gentleman i rise in opposition to h r twenty six sixty nine the cleverly titled college cost reduction act on it what i would like to encourage my colleagues to do and listening to this debate is is try to find what in this bill actually will cut or lower the cost of a college education there will be a lot of talk about cutting subsidies to lenders there will be a lot of talk about lowering student interest rates which actually then is paid to graduates of college but what are we doing to hold down the cost of a college education education the cost of higher education has been going up more than four times the rate of inflation for the last twenty years and we have not done anything to lower those costs this bill allegedly has been crafted to balance fiscal responsibility with significant new aid for college students and their families in fact the majority touts the bill as the most substantial package of new benefits since the g i bill but under the microscope it's clear that these claims fall completely flat in reality this legend is  this legislation is nothing more than a trojan horse for new entitlement spending at the long term expense of american taxpayers even though we're considering this bill under the expedited procedure of budget reconciliation which is my colleagues no is intended for real deficit reduction this bill simply and shamelessly exploits the process it cuts roughly eighteen point five eight billion dollars over five years in payments to student loan providers but simultaneously simultaneously spends more than seventeen billion dollars earning that same period on multiple programs including nine new entitlement programs so while they're talking about cutting mandatory spending they're actually creating nine new entitlement programs an apparent net savings of less than nine percent these do entitlements include grants to native alaskan native hawaiian and other minority serving institutions grants to institutions with low to wish and grants to institutions to create new teacher preparation programs grants to philanthropic organizations a new mandatory perkins loan program cooperative education grants and on and on and on these sound like wonderful things and i think what we're really seeing is that democrats or democrats given the opportunity to spend money they can't help themselves history has proven that once washington d c creates a new entitlement program it never ever dies in other words taxpayers will foot the bill for this onslaught of new entitlement spending for years to come these same students that will be given some savings to some of these special entitlement programs eventually they're going to have to pay for him in higher taxes that they will provide later during that time it will certainly dwarf the token savings found in h r two six six nine it should be noted too that much of this new entitlement spending is aimed at colleges universities and philanthropic organizations which we have never done before the federal government has been sending federal money to the students directly doubt they sending to organizations rather than to the students this represents a distorted departure from the intent of federal student aid programs as law long as the higher education act has existed student and entitlement dollars have been targeted towards students themselves it is lost on me how sending these funds to institutions rather than to the students attending them helps more americans pay for college i doubt that we'll see any reduction intuition rates when they get this new money but that's just what h r two six six nine aims to do what's more mr speaker other proposals included in this bill such as the interest rate cut for certain college graduates included in the  american taxpayers and don't forget the cut to interest rates would not aid a single college student only graduates rather the benefit would be aimed squarely at those who by definition no longer attend college while the intent of this new spending is admirable it is equally mr record mr speaker president bush has threatened to veto of this disingenuous legislation and for good reason with billions a new program most of which is directed toward institutions and graduates rather than students those who really need the help to get into college and stay in college to get on the ladder to  to the american dream this bill marks the first step toward an explosion in new unchecked entitlement spending and another unfortunate step toward further hyperinflation in college costs indeed the measure before us over reaches by creating new entitlement spending for every conceivable constituency in higher education it overreaches by failing to focus on the his store ical federal role in higher education supported by democrats and republicans alike helping low income students and it overreaches by extracting too much out of the federal financial aid program which has been a success by all measures i cannot support it and i ask my colleagues to join me in opposition and with that i reserve the balance of my time the gentleman from california reserves time gemma from california are you limit the gentleman from  legislation as a result of this legislation iowa students and families will receive two hundred thirty two million dollars over five years in additional benefits in the form of student loans and pell grants almost seventy seven thousand students will benefit from the eligibility expansion and pell grant increase in this bill i'm also very pleased that an amendment i offered in committee to allow part time students and students in certificate programs to participate in the year round pell grant program and accelerate their studies was except that as a long time teacher at cornell college in iowa i regularly encountered students struggling to afford their education and i'm certain that this bill makes the right investments a trojan horse for new spending in fact the bill creates nine county nine new entitlement programs and abuses the protection of reconciliation procedures through token budgetary savings it also favors government controlled and costly direct lending program over the nonprofit and commercial lenders promoting a backdoor expansion of taxpayer financed student rich support and a substantial increase in taxpayer liability i want to make four basic points mr speaker number one budget experts have unequivocally warned congress experts from the left from the right and center and everywhere else that unrestrained growth in entitlement spending programs is the most fundamental challenge and the largest threat to our nation's long term economic oh health the comptroller general david walker refers to the rising costs of entitlements as a fiscal cancer that threatens catastrophic consequences for our country and could bankrupt america this spite all of these warnings the majority not only failed to address the problem in their budget they're choosing to make the program problem even worse by creating nine new entitlement programs in this bill alone that's nine new entitlement programs and nothing nada zilch of reform they're not expanding they're not replacing they're creating nine new entitlement programs while the bill claims that some of these programs will sunset we all know entitlement programs on created never die second this creates a new mandatory pell grant program among the new entitlement programs created is an unprecedented mandatory pell program the pell program is a great program and under the republican entitlement which in my opinion reduces congressional oversight third this contains no meaningful meaningful reform whatsoever the bill contains none at all it represents business as usual for existing programs except that interest rates and limits in existing programs are changed to make room for more spending rather than maybe putting the savings in special education or deficit reduction to fund an unfunded mandate and local schools are reducing our deficit it creates all of these new programs in this new spending they will add from fifteen to thirty two billion dollars in spending over the next five years alone on top of the already unsustainable entitlement costs we are facing today instead of reducing long term spending they're using a vehicle originally intended to limit spending to do just the opposite to fund these new programs this bill gets fast track legislation under the guise of deficit reduction under the guise of controlling spending yet what we see here today is a bill that takes eighteen point five eight billion dollars from student loan providers only to spend more than seventeen point one three billion dollars on a new and spent time in savings new entitlement programs the savings of this bill is nine percent a net savings of nine percent look at these two bars in the chart next to me there's a look like the savings are anywhere near the new spending level or does it look like a sliver of savings is being used to abuse the process of expedited reconciliation and the protection so they can create all of these new programs i offered an amendment in the rules committee that would require the bulk of the savings be going toward deficit reduction it's the same amendment that senator kent conrad a chairman of the house of the senate budget committee offered it was passed by unanimous consent in the senate floor i couldn't even get this this amendment passed the rules committee much less on the floor of the house there's one last point is bare there is repeating and that is this favors government over markets if it increases taxpayer liabilities it favors a government controlled and costly direct lending program over nonprofit and commercial lenders promoting a backdoor of expansion of taxpayer financed student support as students are pushed toward the government monopoly the student benefits and services provided by non government lenders to attract business would be lost further the government run program only handles twenty percent of the loans today it would be overwhelmed with the new business and shut down as it has been in the past when large volumes shifted to the program i just want to finish with one quote from the democrat chairman of the senate budget committee that this reconciliation instruction that led to this bill we're seeing here today is quote a stalking horse for a significant expansion of spending please join me in opposing this backdoor expansion of new entitlement spending let's use budget reconciliation for what it was made for support of h r two six six nine the college cost reduction act of two thousand and seven which would provide the most significant investment in higher education since the g i bill i strongly urge my colleagues to support this legislation i thank him and miller for his leadership what we do here in congress does matter it does matter to ordinary people and to and to the average american i was struck by an article in usa today earlier this year about a family whose daughter was pursuing an undergraduate degree and in art despite the fact that their daughter received scholarships to cover about a fifth of her cost this family had to clean out their emergency savings account and their college savings line and then borrow from the families for a long cape plan still their daughter will graduate with forty five thousand dollars in loans that's just not right it doesn't have to be that hard and it won't be that hard if we pass the college costs were duction act which cuts interest rates for student loans provide fiscally responsible and targeted loan forgiveness and increases and expand the pell grant program i was thrilled to be able to work with chairman miller and others on the committee to ensure provisions that would advance loan forgiveness this is a terrific bill i urge my colleagues to support h i thank the gentleman for yielding mr speaker this might possibly be the single most fiscally irresponsible bill to come to the floor this year and it has had a lot of healthy competition why because this bill this bill will create nine count of nine mr speaker new entitle me programs now mr speaker we all know it in title new programs are sometimes the american people don't these are the programs that we put on automatic pilot that get very little oversight and these nine new entitlement programs are going to be on top of almost ten thousand other federal programs that are already on the books it we know that it's in title  spending that is threatening future generations and threatening their educational opportunities as the ranking member on the budget committee the gentleman from wisconsin talked about we've heard from our chairman of the federal reserve quote without early and meaningful action to address the rapid growth of entitlements the u s economy could be seriously weekend with future generations bearing much of the cost cost that could have been used for their opportunities we've heard from country controller general walker the rising cost of government entitlements or a fiscal cancer that threatens catastrophic consequences for a country and could bankrupt it now i have no doubt that the bill's sponsor will claim that this saves money but it uses gimmicks it claims that these entitlements will expire when mr speaker we see halley's comet more frequently than we ever see in title and program expiring in the nation's capital it's got interest rates snap backs and we all know that one season title meant seeds grow the cost will be borne by future generations one thing i want to make very clear mr speaker is that the worst part of this program again is that it will ultimately lessen educational opportunities for hard working american families and it will because it is all part of a democrat spend and tax program programs like these in this necessitate the largest single tax increase in american history which they put into their budget which takes away from families opportunities to spend on their educational opportunities i heard from melanie in chandler in my district she wrote congressman if i have to pay more taxes than i can't afford to go to school if taxes are raised i won't have a choice but to quit school and go back to work i heard from rose  garland texas also in my congressional district i'm a divorced mother with a child in college and a child in daycare an increase in taxes would wipe out hope of the first college graduate in the family heard from bruce and garland in my particular case an additional twenty two hundred dollars in taxes would cut into the finances i used to pay for my son's college education i really believe that more money congress will spend more money so that is not the answer a control in reduction of spending is what is needed now mr speaker there are very few opportunities that are as wondrous in is fundamental to the american dream as education and so i want to make it very clear again today we're not having a debate over how much we're going to spend as a nation on education but we are having a very fundamental debate on who does that spending this bill brought by the democrat majority would put all of the control in government it would reduce opportunities it would reduce choice it would reduce innovation for families trying to finance education and ironically as part of the largest single tax increase in american history it takes money away from families but if people beg for it maybe they'll get a little bit of it back we should reject this bil the california fifteen seconds that they have most interesting to be said here and be lectured by people who when they controlled every department of government every branch of government they took a look a five trillion dollars surplus that they inherited from the clinton administration and immediately turned it in to a three trillion dollar debt that this nation now is carrying around as it tries to compete in the world to be lectured by mind the spenders like that is really a treat on this floor i yield when manage the gentleman from new overdue and much needed infusion of support for federal need based financial aid programs that raises the pell grant maximum from forty three ten to fifty two hundred over a period of years it increases the federal capital contribution for the perkins loan program a program by the way that this administration seems intent on killing and increases loan limits so that students will have access to greater support in doing all of those things we help students avoid what has become termed the wild west of student lending that is the private loan market we have driven students to the private loan market because we have not properly supported the programs that currently exist and with these increases we will be properly supporting those programs and lastly the reduction in the interest rates has been characterized by the other side as not affecting access or affordability and in fact it does students make decisions about the schools that they are going to attend by virtue of their anticipated indebtedness and we address that urge my colleagues to support this bill thank you very much speaker jonathan california and i enquire as to how much time as letter we may gentleman from california has seventeen minutes mr miller from california has twenty one and three quarter minutes maybe we could have maybe you could have one or two more even the time congratulate the chairman but nobody in this body who has served longer with more focus on the quality of education the access to higher education and whether we're dealing with primary secondary or higher  education more concern than george miller of california and i congratulate him on the service that he has given i also want to congratulate the ranking member who himself has been a outspoken advocate of the education quality in america let me say before i start my remarks that i'm always interested to hear the comments of the former chairman or the the ranking member of the budget committee and the leader of the republican study committee i'm interested to hear their remarks because of course they have both said nine new intitle i was here with both of them for three hours one night from three a m to six a m in the morning and when they acted the largest entitle moment that has been enacted since the hundred sixty s and we were told that was going to cost three hundred ninety five billion dollars by the administration the administration did not tell us the truth and they knew they were not telling us the truth and the person who knew the truth was prohibited by the administration from giving us the truth on pain of being removed a civil servant not a ministration appointee he knew the cost of that program as he projected it was five hundred twenty four billion dollars or one hundred and twenty five billion dollars more than we were told on this floor but it was told three hundred ninety five billion dollars additional entitlement now the interesting thing is that mr ryan and mr hanson both voted for that program democrat alternative that cost even more is scored by c b a the gentleman is not of course on this floor lamenting the creation of entitlements as is my friend from texas so i suggest your question is inappropriate because your concern is about entitlement but you voted for an entitlement that was the largest in title meant passed on the floor of this house in four decades about as long as i think the gentleman has been alive so i think the question begs the question my friend but let me say about this landmark legislation the college cost reduction of twenty zero seven is yet another example of how this democratic congress is committed to moving our nation in a new and better direction and working on behalf of the american people in short this legislation will provide the single largest investment investment in college financial aid and about eighteen billion over the next five years now that is about one fifteenth of the mistake that was the greatest generation was worth investing in and that investment has paid off a hundred fold in the economy that this greatest generation built in america and it will do so in this case as well and it does so at no new cost to the american taxpayer by cutting excess subsidies paid by the federal government to lenders in the student loan industry the administration suggested sixteen billion were a little above that so there's not a disagreement as to whether or not there's an overpayment here it's a question of where you're going to put your money in fact it includes a seven hundred fifty million dollars not a lot of money in the scheme of billions of dollars and trillions of dollars reduction in the deficit a few months ago bill gates the chairman of the co founder of the microsoft corporation and one of our nation's great innovators wrote in the washington post and i quote if we the united states are to remain competitive we need a workforce that consists of the world brightest minds that's what this bill seeks to enhance mr gates added and i quote again education has always been the gateway to a better life in this country close quote mr speaker this legislation not only recognizes that education is a key to personal development fulfillment and success but also and critically a crucial factor  our national competitiveness our continued prosperity and yes i suggest all of my colleagues our national security simply stated this legislation will make a college education more affordable for millions of students and their families the fact is college tuition today is exploding to wish in a four year public colleges a drone by thirty five percent in the last five years let me say in my state of maryland to which in cost is going up forty three percent in the last four years america cannot afford to shut people out of the access to college education if we're going to be successful in world markets in a flat world as tom friedman refers to it too many students graduate with tremendous debt and too many others simply don't go to college because they cannot afford it to address this situation this bill will increase the maximum pell grant scholarships by at least five hundred dollars over the next five years that will not come close to what the pell grants an issue only when they were adopted replaced intuition cost about seventy percent we're now down to close to thirty percent when combined with other pell scholarship increases passed by  or proposed by congress this year the minute the maximum pell grant will reach forty nine hundred twenty zero eight fifty two hundred twenty eleven up from four thousand and fifty in twenty zero six notwithstanding the president in two thousand in these campaigns said he was going to increase the pell grant very substantially it didn't happen the bill also will cut interest in half one on subsidized student loans over the next five years and it will guarantee that borrowers will not have to pay more than fifteen percent of their discretionary income to loan repayments in addition this bill seeks to ensure highly qualified teachers in every classroom a critical need in our nation by providing upfront t assistance to qualified students who commit to teaching in public schools in high poverty communities high need areas that is important for our country's ability to compete and to develop every mind in america there is not a child to waste in america we know that it encourages and rewards public service by providing loan forgiveness for first responders law enforcement officers firefighters nurses and others and it encourages landmark new investment five hundred million guaranteed over five years for historically black colleges and universities hispanic serving institutions and tribally controlled native or predominately black institution mr speaker this legislation is a very significant and important step toward realizing the goal of making college affordable for every qualified student i want to congratulate chairman miller once more and the staff and all of the members of the committee and mckinnon for the positive role whatever position one might take for or against positive role that the committee has played it's an historic investment in our people and our nation and i urge every member to strongly support this legislation and yield back the balance of my time john from maryland back to going to california about ten seconds left guess to speak out the majority leader's minute which is probably the longest minute i've ever seen but to listen to him talk you know i was this weekend i bought a t v from somebody that was is good a salesman  hoyer didn't need the t v it was too expensive and i really didn't want it but after talking to the salesman i ended up thinking i needed it and that i could afford it and it was what i needed so i bought it and i think the american people and mr oh boy you're not had this conversation on the floor before is that you can fool some of the people some of the time but you can't fool all the people all the time and so the american people were sold a bill of goods  last november and they're continually being sold things in this congress i come from georgia and we have the hope scholarship mr chairman one of the greatest the tools for education i think that has been done it comes from a lottery which a lot of people oppose but a lot of young people in georgia are now able to go to college what we found in georgia was that when the states started paying for the college tuition that to tuitions went out a side it was another funding manes for these higher educations to charge more now the majority leader said that tuitions in maryland had gone up forty three percent in four years what he thinks that something late to this bill passes because what's going to end up happening in is that when the government starts loaning the money and paying for this those tuitions are going to skyrocket because the people that are getting it don't really care how much to to wish and is now let me say this when i bought this t v that i didn't need and couldn't afford i got down to the bottom dollar of what i thought that i could afford in the course of this great salesman he walked away because he said you know what if i can't make some money i'm not going to do this we ended up negotiating in what ended up happening is i paid more than i wanted to he took less but a bank is not going to loan money if they can't money we hear a lot of back and forth on this floor and we don't know who to believe and who not to believe let me tell you the truth if a sion cannot make money they are not going to do business with people and so the reality is is that the private sector is going to get out of making these loans which is probably the last stop we have of having any type of accountability to it the government is going to start doing it all and if the banks are will not loan it at this interest rate because they are losing money leadership in making this day possible for expanding america's middle class and giving opportunity to america's children for making after which are brighter i rise in strong support of the college cost reduction act of two thousand and seven and nine hundred forty four or when the g i bill of rights became law our nation made a decision they made a decision to invest in the future it was an investment that transform the lives of millions of americans it transformed america to the benefit of all americans indeed it built america over the years a g i bill offered opportunity and economic security to education to more than twenty million of the brave men and women who wore america's name our nation's uniform it has given america hundreds of thousands of engineers teachers and doctors and it has given us a model for the value in investing in the education of our people for our country today with this legislation we will make the single largest increase in college aid since the g i bill of rights revolutionized america an investment to a bright future for our children just as the g i bill had been an investment a bright future for our nation and the economist will tell you that any dollar spent on education is a dollar that makes a big return to our treasury in fact no dollar invested or spent no tax credit no financial knishes to have you can name brings more money to the treasury than investing in education i want to thank again chairman miller and the distinguished members of the committee for their leadership in making this higher education a bill for affordable and accessible access to college and today's competitive job market a college education often makes all the difference americans with college degrees can earn sixty percent more than those with only a high school diploma so in the interest of individuals this is very very important and need higher education is the single best investment our young people can make in themselves their families can make in them and our country can make in our future yes financial barriers this is i think important to note why this legislation is very important financial barriers will prevent four point four four and a half million high school graduates from attending a four year public college over the next decade and prevent another two million high school graduates from attending any college at all over six and a half million students will not have access to any college to some college or any college at all higher education as we all know is the key to achieving the american dream and this legislation has make make sure that all who are qualified and determined to have that education have access to it has has been said and i won't go into it our cutting the interest rates in half by doing so will make it possible more americans to achieve their potential and this is especially important for strengthening the middle class middle income families in america have a struggle to educate their children this interest rate cut is very important for them and by increasing the pell grant maximum pell grant scholarship by over five hundred dollars a nearly six million students will be given help to afford expanding expanding college costs it's important to note i think in hearing the debate on the cost in this or that that the cost of this bill is the equivalent of six weeks in iraq six weeks in iraq imagine that for six weeks in iraq we can expand edge higher education to all who wish to achieve it in america that investment has a return to our treasury to grow our economy to prepare us for the future this legislation is a very important part of our innovation agenda where we do need to invest in many more scientists engineers and mathematicians and by giving opportunities to highly qualified teachers in our classroom for  provides an essential component for a bright future for our nation will provide up front to wishing for highly qualified teachers who agreed to teach in high school high needs areas increasing the loan forgiveness for those who practice civic responsibility encourages students to give back to their communities as teachers librarians childcare welfare workers and public sector employees members have talked about this over and over again the fact is that again for the cost of six weeks in iraq we can ensure the education of our young people across the broad spectrum of america all we can reward those who want to be involved civically and those who want to civically be involved as teachers and it is all paid for today we're not only relieving the debts of america's students but doing so in a way that not only helps relieve their debt but does not heap mountains of national debt on top of our young people the legislation keeps our promise to pay as you go with no new deficit spend it spending democrats believe that just as essential as assuring american students have the opportunity to attend college the college cost reduction act strengthens the future for our students and it strengthens our nation i think again that this is an historic day mr chairman and my colleagues because it's a day that is about the american dream it's a day about expanding opportunity in our country it's a day that recognizes that the best dollar that we can spend is a dollar spent on education and it recognizes that education is the key to a brilliant future not only for the self fulfillment of our people but for the a success of our country it's about our self fulfillment personally it's about growing our economy it's about our national security it's a carrying the banner of our founders who've made a commitment to future generations thank you mr miller members of the committee for helping us honor that commitment to future generations i urge our colleagues to support this very important and historic legislation i yield back t speaker i rise said today in strong opposition to this cleverly entitled college cost reduction act of two thousand and seven under the guise of saving money and paying down the deficit democrat leaders are using the budget reconciliation process as a vehicle to create a host of expensive new federal bureaucracies rather than make tough decisions to restrain entitlement spending and balance the federal budget mandatory spending programs consume the largest portion of the federal budget and their share will only increases so security and medicare costs explode in coming years unfortunately this action comes as no surprise after claiming the majority under the under the claims of fiscal accountability house democrats have already voted to approve a massive four hundred billion dollar tax increase on working families and small businesses and may i add that that amounts to over three thousand dollars on average tax increase for these students were attempting to help now we're considering a piece of legislation that would create nine new entitlement probe rahm's resulting in eighteen billion dollars in new spending explosion a new unchecked entitle in spending is another unfortunate step backwards for the american taxpayer i agree that congress must remain committed to ensuring affordable access to post secondary education but instead of focusing on the bulk of need in an increasing access to higher education for low income students the bill increases aid to colleges and universities at the expense of students who receive pell grants h r twenty six sixty nine only targets four point nine billion toward pell grants increasing the maximum award by just one hundred dollars per year for five years pell grants have proven to be effective in helping low income students retain a higher education this bill will not prioritize pell grants i do wish to take a moment to thank chairman miller for working with me to remove section two zero one of the bill in his manager's amendment i was happy to work with our state's governor to make this change this action withheld funds from the leveraging education assistance partnership known as sleep if a state reduced the average amount of funding it has provided over the last five years the so called maintenance of effort provision is a bold and unprecedented overreach of federal authority designed to dictate state budgets this is particularly true because the federal government provides little direct assistance to states or higher education institutions low income and financially needy students should not have to struggle because of the state's budgetary shortfalls my home state of michigan continues to suffer from a struggling economy and difficult choices must be made and how to most appropriately fund the state however needy students should not have critical financial aid yanked away because the state cannot afford the same financial commitment it has made the leap program in more prosperous years i was also prepared to offer amendment to the how to rules committee that's with thirty more seconds yield the gentleman additional fifteen seconds john is recognized for fifteen seconds i also appreciate the chairman's manager's amendment remove section of that earmarked thirty million dollars for prior upward bound grantees has submitted low scoring up occasions rather than to the hundred  recognized for one minute thank you thank general feeling my friend from georgia said a few minutes ago he described buying something he didn't need at a price he couldn't afford i want to thank him for giving us a perfect description of the last seven years a governance of this country under the bush administration we got a lot of things we didn't need a war in iraq a misadventure in iraq at a price we couldn't afford four trillion dollars in new debt under their watch twelve billion dollars a month in iraq under their watch this is something we do need and we can afford higher college scholarships for american students lower student loan interest rates for american students and it's paid for unlike their massive spending increase unlike their tax break giveaways to the wealthy this does not increase the deficit by a dollar we are changing their failed policy of buying things we don't need at prices we can afford they should vote for that change today i yield back t jonathan california passed the many remaining time absolutely the gentleman from california had ten and three quarter minutes jemma from california to eighteen and three quarter of a second job a second mortgage or dipping into their savings to help pay for their kids college education and that is the wrong choice to ask parents to make in illinois tuitions last year went up increases fourteen and a half percent the fourth largest increase of any state in america today when a kid got graduates from college they graduate with an average of fifteen thousand dollars in debt so on the front page they get a diploma on the back side they get the first credit card bill that is the wrong choice for america you could not write the last the decade the american decade if you didn't look at the g i bill and making a high school education universal in america those are the two most significant economic act of the last of the last hundred years of my colleagues on as i've noted two examples one the worried about the deficit after four trillion dollars of new debt i appreciate your conversion to concern about their increasing the deficit but there is no deficit spending here five additional fifteen thirty seconds gentlemen to szell thirty seconds thank you second and most importantly they talk about the importance of the pell grants this is after in fact the president's budget cut billion dollars froze it for the last three years we are doing the right investment not one of us would be in this institution if it wasn't for two things the love of our parents and the access to high our education and we are providing american something different from the last six years rather than slamming the door shut on their access to a college education we're opening the doors to making that dream the american dream possible and i compliment our leadership for bringing this bill and opening the doors of america's future with a good college elected to the house of representatives last november i asked to serve on the higher education subcommittee specifically so i can help make college more affordable for american families and this bill does just that it raises pell grant awards to their highest level in history it cuts in half the interest rate students will pay on their student loans and this bill rewards community service by providing loan forgiveness for those who choose careers in important fields like first responders law enforcement firefighters and nurses and we do all this at no additional cost to the taxpayer this bill is fully funded and i am proud to have played a part in crafting this important journey from north carolina is recognized for three minutes i want to thank the chairman and the ranking member for all giving me this time i've sat here and listen to this debate on this bill and now i want to say that  're back at the healing with hypocrisy again here as we have been on a daily basis the college cost reduction act the title is not just a misnomer it's an outright lie much of the eighteen in dollars in new spending doesn't reduce the cost of college but instead consists of new welfare targeted people who aren't even students compare and comparing this bill to the g i bill is truly truly hypocrisy we instituted the g i bill to help men and women who had fought for this country and returned to this country to help them get a college education and get into a back into our culture this is all all this is going to do is increase the nanny state what we're doing is taking away personal responsibility from people and giving them out and now payments for loans that they take out that they don't need to take out economists are not going to tell us that money spent on education is a good investment and money the government doesn't invest money the government spends money it's interesting to me that they brought out the big guns for this bill and they say it's no new cost to taxpayers well every dollar we take away to taxpayers is a cost to them why is to wish an up forty three percent we're looking at the wrong issue as long as the government keeps throwing money than the then the institutions are going to keep expanding what they charge i've used myself as an example before but i know many people who've done this they went to college they never borrowed a dime they were poor  could be we should call this the new democrat well for your bill it is a trojan horse it is designed to fool the american people you know we've used this analogy before you can put lipstick on a pig but it's still a pig and that's what this bill is there is no need for this there's no need for people to go into debt to go to college in this country there are all kinds of choices for people and all we're doing is taking money away from hardworking american people and creating new government programs i am really concerned about the direction in which we're heading in this country the democrats have never seen a welfare program they didn't like republicans were able to decrease welfare costs when they took over in this body in one nine hundred ninety five this is the democrats another attempt by the democrats to continue the welfare program i want americans to have access to education i've worked in education all my life school board member university administrator college president i dealt with low income students this is not the way to do it we don't need to return to the na in california you know myself fifteen seconds and say i just find it unbelievable that the republicans would decide that families that are making every sacrifice to borrow money and students that are making every sacrifice to borrow and pay back money that somehow they're called they're called  welfare recipients these are hard working american families who are struggling to educate their children and i want to disassociate myself from any of that kind of characterization of these families or the students  now one minute to the gentleman from mr kennedy some of them rhode island is recognized for one minute mr chairman a colloquy with the gentleman from california as i understand mr chairman important provision in this bill is loan forgiveness program for individuals serving in high need professions one of those is child and adolescent mental health professionals to understand the chairman in helping me secure this program in the overall bill so that we can bring more professionals into this area i want to thank you gentlemen for bringing this to our attention and we look forward to continuing to work with him on this issue as he's pointed out to this committee many members of the congress that we in fact have a workforce crisis and that's what we have tried to address in the loan forgiveness program in those in those professions that aren't necessarily the highest pain in our society but are essential to the well being of our society and we will we will work with that with the gentleman as this bill proceeds through the legislative process on this matter suicide is alert third leading cause of death for young people to many young people are waiting in detention in our juvenile detention facilities all across america it's causing a disruption education all across this country we need more child that a lesson to mental health professionals if we're going to have an education system and i thank the gentleman for helping us get more of those professionals in the field so we can move forward with their education thank you i thank the gentleman from rhode island i look forward to continuing to work with him on this issue and this conference and also on the higher education act in the our larger bill thank you very much so much time has expired who seeks time hundred forty four g i bill college costs have grown nearly forty percent in just the last five years and too many students have found themselves drowning in debt or worse unable to afford an education at all i believe education is an investment not an expenditure this bill will increase our nation's competitiveness and allow americans from all economic backgrounds to achieve the dream of a college career this act would make need a student loans more easily accessible and provide for additional mandatory funding for the program scholarship benefiting nearly two hundred thirty thousand students in my home state of illinois the bill also cuts the interest rate on subsidized student loans in half over the next five years and includes tuitions assistance for students who teach in the nation's public schools and loan forgiveness for college graduates go into public service professions i urge my colleagues to join us in supporting h r two six six nine jennifer massachusetts recognized for one minute i thank you gentlemen for acknowledging me i'm happy to rise the sport of this bill here today of a conversation i heard a short while ago from my colleagues that there are some people in america that are taking welfare don't need to have public assistance to go on to college probably not thinking of the same america that i'm thinking of i'm thinking of the america where college costs have gone up forty one percent after inflation and that's just for public higher education i'm thinking of the america where parents are working two jobs in many occasions the students are working and they still can't afford the cost of public higher education i'm thinking of the america that has not raised the value of the pell grant for many many years and we have the chance here to do just that and i'm looking at a bill supporting a going to raise the pell grants is going to lower the interest rate on student loans both of which are necessary for many many families in this country i'm talking to businesses as well as families this is a chance not just to help the individuals but to help our economy we all are very happy to talk about the need to really have a college educated populace out there so we can be competitive globally this is our opportunity to put our money where our mouth is this is a good piece of work i congratulate the channel for getting this rule we look forward to passing it in the whole traditionally republicans have stood for budgetary responsibility and competition to ensure a good return on taxpayer investment in federal programs and i believe that this bill will not perfect is something that any republican who stands for these princip should support for many years i have spoken out against the excess subsidies the taxpayers paid to lenders in the guaranteed loan program government and private economists including those in the office of management budget the congressional budget office the government accountability office and the treasury department have all confirmed the significant inefficiencies in the program due to the arbitrary and capricious nature in which lender subsidies have been set over the last forty years in fact the  scorekeepers have found that tax payers spend three to five billion dollars each year on unnecessary subsidies that could be better applied as direct aid to students the status quo  inefficient wasteful and unacceptable and i applaud the efforts made in this bill to riyadh rect these resources primarily as pell grants and interest rate reductions this bill also contains two other critically important provisions that largely have been overlooked in this debate first it includes an amendment that i offered and which was unanimous adopted in committee to study and implement a pilot program using market based reforms such as auctions to bring down the cost to taxpayers in the guaranteed loan program the reason we find ourselves needing to read redirect these subsidies in the first place is due to the fact that congress set subsidy rates blindly and irresponsibly not based on any market considerations as a free market republican i believe congress has no business setting lender returns other mechanisms such as auctions will actually capture market demands to obtain the awful rate for taxpayers and for lenders given the tremendous waste fraud and unethical relationships that event uncovered in this program over the last six months it's clear that the guaranteed loan program is fundamentally and structurally flawed this study and pilot are key to comprehensively reforming this program to ensure it serves students and taxpayers and i'd like to think the chairman and the committee for their strength strong support for this important effort for this bill applies a small portion of the savings toward improving in can contingent student loan repayments earlier this year i introduced the idea act h r twenty four sixty five to make key changes to our current limited income contingent loan repayment program the bill would make this repayment model accessible to all borrowers and better address the growing debt burden which our students are graduating with some of my colleagues may be surprised to learn that this repayment model was actually developed by free market economist milton friedman as the way for all students no matter their income to repay their student loans to college cost reduction act includes several provisions included in my legislation to improve this program such as a fifteen percent cap on adjusted income payments and moving the floor in repayment from one hundred to one hundred fifty percent of the poverty level these are positive first steps towards implementing a viable income contingent repayment program and i hope my colleagues will consider co sponsoring the idea to develop a loan repayment system for the twenty first century and i think my colle education and increasing access for all of those who dream of attending college and that includes mr speaker our service members our service members who face extraordinary challenges when activated to go to iraq or afghanistan while in college under current law those deciding not to return to school must begin to repay the loan immediately after returning home and this means this as we all know that they will receive their student loan bills in the mail within every turning from a combat zone among the other benefits in this bill than the college cost reduction act includes an amendment to give those activated while in college a thirteen month deferment before they must begin repaying a student loan this bill is important and it's important for this reason because it provides our service members the protections and the rights they deserve when activated while in unanimous consent to revise my stand without objection every single american no matter what circumstances here she comes from deserves the opportunity to earn a college degree but this opportunity shouldn't come at the cost of years of crippling financial debt that's why the time has come for this congress to ejb ease the education burden by increasing pell grants reducing interest rates and closing the gap between college costs and financial aid for the fifth time in six years the college system in california raised jewish and in fact this fall students at sonoma state university in my district will be required to pay nearly three thousand dollars more a year intuition that's a ten percent increase from the current to wish it we need to do better we need to work with our colleges to keep costs low we need to invest in financial aid and today we are finally doing that and it's going to cost eighteen billion dollars to help this financial aid increase eighteen billion dollars about the same as six weeks of our occupation in iraq legislation we've outlined many of the provisions of the bills today i would just point out that this will result in more than two hundred fifty million dollars in additional loan and pell grant aid to new jerseyans i'm also pleased that this legislation includes provisions for my bill the part time student assistance act that will make pell grants available year round instead of the current two semesters a year and this is important for students who work and go to school also we've raised the income protection allowance  in the college cost reduction act so that students who have to work to support themselves and their families can earn more without having that count against their student aid the bill also includes provisions for my bill the national security language this provide five thousand dollars in loan forgiveness for federal employees with credit critical foreign language skills the bill also provides upfront grant aid for those who are becoming math science and foreign language teachers without qualified teachers in these areas we're endangering the competitiveness of our children in the global economy i urge my colleagues to support this legislation who seeks recognition gentleman in california ha of a difference of philosophy of government we agree on on much of what's in this bill because in fact my friend from texas congressman ron paul is a purist capitalist libertarian but in fact we've always had a blended government and the question is is whether it's through tax incentives direct spending org loans we've had a blended economy from the days of building canals and from our beginning the question is which way we're going to tilt is there going to be a capitalist tilt or is the tilt going to be government running this i believe and i understand that likely today i'm going to lose i'm going to be on the losing side but i want to go on record pointing out how in fact extreme this bill is there is a section a provision of this bill however well intentioned that reverses the normal role of trying to balance what you purchase with your ability to repay it's it's to it's an income based section one thirty three open ended entitlement benefit regardless of profession that allows them to cap their maximum loan payment each year at one hundred fifty percent of discretionary income and have the remainder of the loan forgiven after twenty years under the bill this means he typical entry level hill staffer earning twenty five thousand dollars a year would never be forced to pay more than one hundred twenty dollars a month on their student loans this would no be out be popular to our staff but the american taxpayer i don't believe would approve of this an income based repayment repayment program would eliminate once and for all any need for students to weigh their choice of college or university against which type of career they planned in or after the degree it's a disconnect between capitalism with capitalism because you don't have to say if i get this number of degrees and go this far how is my job going to repay this should i go to a local campus should i go to a lower priced college it's disconnected now based from your choice of employment well the government surely has a role in increasing access to education this government would totally strip any incoming college student from making a responsible choice it's kind hearted but reckless one final example to strengthen a point say someone leaves school with an advanced degree and one hundred  twenty thousand dollars of loan debt and takes a job making a steady sixty five thousand dollars a year the he or she if they selected to become part of this program making sixty five thousand dollars a year and made only minimum monthly payments using the current six point eight percent interest rate the required monthly payment of the program would not even cover the interest on the loan so that twenty years later they would have their hundred fifty thousand forgiven even though they had been making sixty five thousand dollars a year that's because in the media income in the united states only forty six thousand dollars that i believe that we should work with low income students out there pell grants and i support many parts of this bill in targeting but when you disconnect the economic mr speaker i asked permission to revise and extend my remarks out objection i rise in strong support of the college cost reduction act the largest increase in college aid since the g i bill and i especially thank chairman miller for his leadership this legislation will make college more affordable and accessible for students in hawaii and across america it will do so at no new cost to taxpayers keeping america competitive requires an educated workforce pre prepared for high skilled jobs beyond preparing our youth for careers education is vital for the full development of an individual college costs of high skyrocketed beyond the means of many students and their families and as a result students in hawaii and elsewhere are holding off going to college or skipping it altogether and those who do attend college are taking on increasing amounts of debt so this bill is of critical importance because the hardworking families i represent need this help i also want to mention a few other provisions in this legislation that are very important to me as a member of this committee i work to increase funding for colleges and universities for native hawaiians and alaska natives thirty million dollars over the next five years for this and many other reasons i rise in strong support of this measure thank you jim of the california how much time do we have left the gentleman from california is one of the quarter minutes  the gentleman from california has nine and one quarter minutes remaining the gentleman from from new york ms clark with me a gentlewoman from new york is recognized for one minute thank you very much mr speaker i ask your permission to revise and extend my remarks without objection it is with great pleasure that i write today to give my enthusiastic support to the college cost reduction act of two thousand and seven h r twenty six sixty nine i want to thank chairman miller for his leadership in this matter in the advent of the twenty first century the question we must ask ourselves is what is it we done to ensure the success of our nation the development of our civil society education has been and will always be the portal for our advancement the cost of attending college has increased by forty percent over the past five years as a result students are graduating with more debt than ever and postponing enviroment or him a boy in college all together because they just can't afford it this legislation is a much needed sigh of relief which additional college students working families adult learners in my home district in brooklyn new york and across this nation the college course we dodging at cots cut interest rates in half on subsidized student loans over the next five years increases the amount of federal loans available to students and so i ask your end to the epic support for this groundbreaking a spending plan what we're really looking at is an investment in education for those individuals who without it would never have an opportunity to experience a college education i've heard some things that i thought were unimaginable this afternoon eighty percent of the students in my district who attend the university of illinois or rely upon financially this legislation provides money for historically black colleges and universities who are falling apart many of them at the seams hispanic serving institutions individuals who would never ever get an opportunity to go to district in connecticut that's the home of the university of connecticut eastern connecticut state university three community colleges concow is mitchell college we are the higher ed district of the state of connecticut and one hundred thirty million dollars in new loan assistance and  through grants will be coming to connecticut as a result of this measure being passed which again is great news for my district but frankly this bill is about something more than just parochial priorities which are very important to my district it's also about the change of direction that this new congress is keeping faith with passage of this legislation when i campaign last year as a challenger in the closest race in america the decision of the last congress to take twelve billion dollars out of the higher education account and use it to raise interest rates on student loans for the purpose of making sure that the paris hilton strata of american society are going to get their tax cuts was a perfect symbol for how out of touch the prior congress was with the needs of america passing this legislation will at the college cost reduction act students from working families especially those who are the first in their family to attend college face many optical never when there's no one at home to save the s a t s aren't that difficult or that tricking or that financial aid forms are going to be a nightmare to sell out or that taking out a student loan isn't as scary as it might seem the high cost of college is of course the biggest obstacle in recent years the rise in college tuition has far outstripped inflation and the previous congressional majority failed to ensure that pell grants kept up that's why i'm proud to support this bill it provides the single largest investment in higher education since the g i bill at no new cost to taxpayers my mother and father both immigrants who arrived in the u s with little money and not knowing english right seven children what a lot of hard work and sacrifice all of us attended college and to even made it in the congress what i really like about this bill is that ensures that the doors that were open to my brothers and sisters and me will stay open for the young people of today and generations to come and i and we have always known that when our troops returned home during world war two they became eligible for the g i bill which built the middle class in this country today we have an opportunity to once again invest in america in our next generation this is the key to c competitiveness is the key to the global economy to make sure that our people will be able to work in the world and to prosper it is our honor to be able to present this is that raising any any taxes on the american taxpayer in my save new hampshire alone over fifteen thousand students will benefit from this increase fifteen hundred more new hampshire students will qualify for pell grants we have a wonderful opportunity to invest in our nation and our next generation and to strengthen the middle class and speaker i would like to begin by thanking chairman miller for his leadership on this bill and certainly urge my colleagues to vote for the college costs reduction act of two thousand and seven mr speaker i rise in support of  two six six nine the college cost reduction act of two thousand and seven this legislation will provide the single largest investment in college financial aid sense the one nine hundred forty four g i bill helping millions of low and middle income students and families pay for college mr speaker just legislation would provide about eighteen billion dollars over the next five years in college financial aid at no cost to the united states taxpayers no new cost this new investment is critically important because college costs have grown nearly forty percent in the last five years students are graduating from college with more debt than ever before and many would be students are holding off going to college or skipping it altogether because they do not believe thirty seconds just make recognize for additional thirty seconds thank you very much therefore mr speaker by boasting by boosting scholarship and reducing loan intuition cost the college cost reduction act of two thousand and seven makes a historic investment in america's college students its economic competitiveness and its future while maintaining fiscal responsibility i urge my colleagues to support this landmark legislation with that i yield back the balance of my time jim's time is expired the gentleman from california gentleman from california i have only myself to me the gentleman from california on the democratic side has two minutes and thirty four two minutes and forty five seconds remaining in the gentleman from california the republican side has as a minute think seconds remaining gentleman from california thank you mr speaker mr speaker i think this has been a very interesting debate and at the beginning of the debate i asked our colleagues to please listen carefully for anything they might he would lower to waste in rates that would lower the cost of a college education and i've listened very carefully and i i haven't heard anything i've heard a lot of talk about investment i've heard a lot of talk about new spending and a lot of these things how wonderful it it reminds me kind of what i would take my children to sit on santa claus knee you know he'd ask them what they want they tell him all the wonderful things and it was many times wished i could have been santa claus and just give them all that they wanted sometimes it comes back to reality in the parents have to make some tough decisions based on our budget i think people that are listening to this debate realize that there is no free lunch that with all of the new programs nine new entitlement programs somebody is going to have to pay for those and i just intreat those who are watching to not create nine new entitlements the place the interests of colleges university graduates philanthropic organizations above the need of low income students let's not put this price on our children and our grandchildren and i yield back the balance of my time nine men i want to thank all of the members of the committee for the work on this on this legislation on both sides of the on this certainly want to thank the staff as we finish general debate we said when we when we gain the majority in this congress that we want to take american a new direction and this legislation in fact does that for six for six point eight million students who take out need based low owns this legislation will allow for cutting the interest rate in half over the next five years for those students that will save them almost forty four hundred dollars on the average debt that they graduate with for almost five and a half million students who rely on a pell grant for the basic cost of their education this means that over the next four years that grant will increase by some five hundred dollars definitely a new direction because what we saw in the past was the republicans made it more expensive to pay for your student loans they made they provided little or no contribution to the pell grant over the last four or five years that is a new direction and what does it mean to america it means that we're investing in the students in the talent of the future it means that these are the young people that will take their talents and provide the next generation of discovery the next generation of innovation the next generation of jobs in america the next generation of economic activity here at home that's the investment that was made by our grandparents back in one thousand nine hundred eighty four in that generation the first for a generation to go to college in such great numbers with the g i bill and that's the investment that we have the courage and the vision to make in this generation of young people for the future of this country that's what this legislation is about it's about making sure that the doors of higher education that every employer tells us is now necessary to come to the american workplace if you want to career and you want to decent wage and you want to be able to provide your family that the doors to those higher education institution be they community college just a college universities or elite universities however you want to characterize them that those doors will not be closed to people who are talented and ready and qualified to go to college this legislation provides the means to ensure their access to help them pay for it and to make sure that they don't have to make choices against their best interest because of that  later in life that they can choose to go into the professions the services the society this is a dramatic departure dramatic departure from the status quo a dramatic departure what the republicans did when they had a chance they had twenty billion they decided they would help pay for the tax cuts to the wealthiest people in the in the country that's what they did with a big chunk of the money that they took from these excess subsidies these subsidies that were taken away from the banks the entitlement program that the banks have today as we stand here will be changed and yes it will become an entitlement program for america's families america's students those most in need in this country that's what this congress ought to be doing that's what this the citee wants us to do and we're going to do it on mr speaker i yield myself such time as i may consume mr speaker if bridging that gap between low income students and their dream of a college education is a primary goal of this house then this substitute should be adapted with ease th ts because this amendment nearly doubles the pell grant increase provided by the underlying bill it makes pell funding available year round for students seeking to finish their degrees more quickly by taking summer courses which also makes a savings for them and that eliminates a role that needlessly punishes students attending low cost schools by limiting the amount of pell grant funds they can receive each year first some background less than a third of the savings and the underlying bill roughly six billion dollars is directed to the most six spel student aid program on the books today the pell grant program in fact more funds under the base bill are directed toward those who are by definition no longer even students this is done by temporarily phasing down interest rates on certain loans being repaid by college graduates and the remaining third of the bill triggers billions of dollars in new entitlement spending including nine new areas of entitlement spending altogether in fact some of this new spending is not even directed towards students but rather to institutions like colleges universities and philanthropic organizations this pell grant substitute will tip the balance back toward low income students struggling to pay for their college education by increasing the maximum far more than the underlying bill specifically it would provide for nine billion dollars in additional funding for pell grants over the next five years again that's nearly double what the underlying bill would do here's how we do it this program proposal adopts the same cut to lender insurance rates from ninety seven to ninety five percent as the underlying bill while having the same goal of reducing administrative fees paid to guarant agencies as well in addition this substitute would save the federal government eleven billion dollars through lower special allowance payments i believe the structure of savings is far more responsible than the underlying bill which much like the president's fiscal year two thousand and eight budget fails to take into account the fact that congress cut some eighteen billion dollars from the student loan programs just last year with these savings more than fifteen billion dollars in total this amendment corrects current law to equalize the fell and direct loan rates plus loans at seven point one percent it retains bipartisan language from the underlying bill to permit members of the armed forces the ability to defer their loans for up to thirteen months upon returning from service and most importantly it invests more than nine billion dollars in the p this investment would allow us to increase the maximum pell grant by three hundred fifty dollars in two thousand and eight compared to the smaller increase in the underlying bill and by a hundred dollars for each year thereafter and on top of that this measure would pay down the deficit by five point seven four billion dollars that's more than three times what the underlying bill would dedicate toward deficit reduction also included in this substitute are a key college cost reforms including the college affordability and transparency act legislation that i andrews introduced earlier this year to arm parents and students with more information about college costs than ever before the measure also would take important steps to insist that colleges and universities be held more accountable for their role in the college cost crisis mr speaker through my substitute amendment we didn't crease pal decrease the deficit more directly address college costs and put in place a handful of other student benefits without creating a single new entitlement program we've got accomplish all of this without creating a new maze of rules and regulations for students parents and institutions to navigate and we would accomplish all of this without shortchanging the low income students who need the most help to get on the ladder to achieve the american dream i urge my colleagues to join me in supporting it and i reserve the balance of my time jones of the balance of his time what purpose of the gentleman from california writes i yield to just two minutes to the gentleman failed to make unanimous consent request at the at the at the beginning so i ask unanimous consent that all members have five legislative days which revising stand the remarks and include extraneous material in h r twenty six sixty nine without objection mr for two minutes the gentleman from oregon is recognized for two minutes thank you mr speaker and thank you mr chairman for yielding me the time i shall not use it all i ask unanimous consent to submit my written statement for the record and with just a few and with just a minute or two of time one of the saddest moments one of the two saddest moments in my relatively brief career here in the united states house was when this chamber acted at the president's request to cut twelve billion dollars from college financial aid that occurred the day after a state of the union address where the president talked about american competitiveness today we take a bold step in rectifying that air and i just want to refer a moment to the other s day of my thus far eight years in the house of representatives and that was the decision in this chamber to go to war in iraq those were the two saddest moments in my congressional career beginning a war an error and now perpetuating a pride but at least today at this moment we are having an opportunity to rectify in my view the other great error that we committed during my time in this chamber and that is the twelve billion dollar cut that the education committee passed the prior majority passed in this house that in this chamber and that went into effect without a necessary sixty vote majority in the senate now we can propose this greatest increase in college financial aid we may or may not have the votes for cloture in the other chamber but this is the right thing to do this is the right thing to do it will make america more competitive it will help individuals and help our society and we will rectify the errors that we have made in the past one by one six recognition jim of in calif john the gentleman from recognized the gentleman from new york for three minutes mr bishop i'm sorry i was a two minutes three minutes three minutes the gentleman from new york recognize speaker i rise in opposition to the amendment of the ranking member and i urge its defeat and i urge our colleagues to to vote in support of the of the underlying bill and i do so for several reasons but before i talk about that i'd like to talk about some of the things that i've heard here today in the debate that disturb me greatly and i think require being addressed the first is that i believe the ranking member i'm go paraphrase him but i think correctly said that we just can't help ourselves that if you give us an opportunity to spend money we're going to spend and and i would i would rephrase that and i would say that we just can't help ourselves if you give us an opportunity to solve a problem we're going to solve it and we're going to do so in a fiscally responsible way and the problem that we're trying to solve with this underlying bill is diminished access and affordability to higher education a problem which if we leave unaddressed is going to have a very serious consequence in terms of our of our future and in terms of our security and we are addressing this problem as i say in a fiscally responsible way it will not cost the taxpayers one dime i've also heard a great deal of talk about how we are not addressing the issue of entitlement spending and how we are creating nine new entitlements are mandatory budget represents about sixty or seventy percent of the total expenditures of this nation and it is it includes a number of so called entitlement programs social security medicare medicaid interest on the national debt and i would point out that of all these programs only one is truly mandatory and that is interest on the national debt and that number has ballooned over the last six years under the watch of the then majority when they controlled every lever of power in this town fiscal zero one interest on the national debt was two hundred billion dollars a year fiscal zero seven interest on the national debt is two hundred sixty five billion dollars a year and the total debt has grown by three trillion dollars so i would simply say that it rings hollow to hear a lecture on fiscal responsibility and to be told that we are behaving in a way that is injurious to the american taxpayer when in fact our behavior is the antithesis of the behavior that has held sway in this house for the last six years now with the with the amendment here's what we would not get if we were to pass mr mckeon's amendment we would get no reduction in interest rates a condition that would influence students decisions to attend colleges that would no increase in the federal capital capital contribution for the perkins loan program i will repeat this is a loan program that this administration is trying or earnestly to kill and in what is a terribly ill advised  availability of perkins loans and to create act correct a common misperception the perkins loan program is not duplicative of the f f t l program or of the direct lending program in fact a great many students borrow from both programs there would be no investment in cooperative education a program that exposes students to the world of work and help in riches their college experience there would be no investment in placing a highly highly qualified teacher in every classroom something that we absolutely must do if we are going to make the advances on the k through twelve level that we simply must make the advances that were contemplated by the no child left behind legislation advances that we now have an opportunity to put in place and there would be diminished opportunity for students who are needy to pursue careers in public service and in not for profit we cannot have a condition in which students choose their career based on their indebted and this law this this underlying legislation will address that so i believe that the college costs reduction act is is as i said before long overdue much needed and will address some very serious concerns that currently confront college students and their families will do so in a fiscally responsible way and i urge its passage and i urge defeat of the amendment by mr mckeon i yield back the balance of my time gentleman yield back the balance of his time the gentleman from the gentleman from california know myself such time as i may consume gentleman's recognized mr speaker let me say how relieved i am that the measure we are considering today does not incorporate the highly converse or controversial star act which would turn over the entire federal student loan program to washington bureaucrats i appreciate the chairman for not including that i continue to strongly support a healthy competition between the government run direct loan program and the market based fell program and doing anything to upset that competition would be terrible for students parents and taxpayers alike nonetheless i would be remiss if i did not express some concerns about the extent of the fell cuts in h r twenty six sixty nine after cutting some eighteen billion dollars from our student loan program during a budget reconciliation process process in the last congress an additional cut of more than eighteen point seven five this year strikes me as overreaching though this figure is close to the president's cut in his latest budget proposal i believe the administration itself went too far and gave very little consideration to the impact of the cuts we made in the last congress i also believe supporters of h r twenty six sixty nine did not take into account the impact the bill's cuts may have on student loan default rates you know when i became chairman twelve years ago the subcommittee over higher education the default rates were running about twenty five percent and through competition in the things that we've worked on during that time we've cut that rate to now the default rate is running at about five percent if it gets back up to those higher ranges again that's going to cost the american taxpayer another eleven billion dollars a year house republicans are already on record as having supported savings from some of the lenders subsidies and the may i'll be room to go even further later today and my substitute i offer cutting fifteen billion which is a little less than the underlying bill and but may still be too high only time will tell but we must be cautious to not overreach the majority often takes aim at student lenders and seeks continual and excessive cuts as a way to punish them for daring to make a profit you know businesses have to make a profit or they don't remain in business and if they don't remain in business and making loans to students it's running about seventy billion dollars a year now if they don't continue to make those loans some well then the direct lending program can take it over which means the department of education which there have been some criticisms of would become the largest bank in the world you know doing all of the student loan system will early in my tenure here they had to shut down their program because they couldn't keep up and it was a much smaller program at the time and i have very great concerns of turning the whole student loan program over to the department of education the real victims in all of this debate are the smaller lenders the large lenders which is kind of a paradox because they're the ones that we seem to be going after they will survive and they will they will even get better the small that help those that need this the small loans takes about seven thousand dollars for a lender to make a profit on these loans in my community kids going to the community colleges need a much smaller loan t the fees everything run less than a thousand dollars a year and if they take out a loan to cover that the lenders that are making that loan really aren't making any money they're doing it as a service they're not going to do that for a lawn when they keep getting hit with these kind of cuts they will just get out of the program and then eventually it would be turned over to the to the government run program let me just give a couple of examples one of the things i'm concerned about the navy federal credit union right here in virginia that holds two hundred eighty million dollars in federal loans or san miguel federal credit union that holds one hundred forty million dollars or  arkansas that holds eighty six million dollars or sovereign bank in reading pennsylvania that holds seventy nine million dollars commerce bank and trust in topeka kansas that holds sixty million dollars or zions first national bank in salt lake with sixty seven million dollars with these lenders still be in a program offering loans to their local citizens or will they be driven out of the program by large lenders such as sallie mae that's something that time will tell as we keep cutting the the subsidy that the federal government gives now to help these remain to get the help to those students that need the loans the mary most without i reserve the balance of my time gentleman reserves the balance of his time  not be a prerequisite for future success for too many hardworking and qualified americans a college degree is the key to a successful career and for millions more that education since i'm so deep into debt that raising a family is impossible the college cost reduction act will respond to this injustice with an unparalleled commitment in higher education one hundred forty thousand students and families will save more than two hundred million dollars on tuitions costs in my home state out of kentucky alone you know we've heard a lot during this debate from our colleagues on the other side throwing the word around of entitlement as if entitlement is a dirty word and i will grant that over the years some title months have not been particularly productive but entitlements can also be significant investments in not only human capital but in the future of this country and in this particular instance what we're saying is we are going to make a dramatic step not just to improve the lives of millions of young americans but also to make an investment in their futures and the future of this economy and if we don't do it the great disparity in wealth between the most wealthy people in this country and everyone else will continue to grow and we will face  economy in which we are not developing the type of talent that will keep this country at the stature that it has been always maintained so i am firmly against and i urge my colleagues to vote against the amendment as strongly support the college cost reduction act because this is ultimately an investment in our future as a country as a great nation and the future of a many americans who without this help will be destined to a monday in future which will mean that tennessee is recognized thank you mr chairman and i want to thank the gentleman from california for the work that he has done on this i also want to commend him for his appreciation for how we approach education and how we approach access to education in this country his work in the committee has not gone unnoticed and we do appreciate that commitment i do rise today to support the mckeon substitute that we have for us and i think that it addresses some of the problems that so many members on both sides of the aisle have problems with in the underlying legislation you cannot deny that there are new nine new entitlement programs that are contained in the underlying legislation and quite frankly we have heard from so many people who have expressed concern over this as we're at a time when people talk about the need to reduce the size of the federal government to reduce the bureaucracy to reduce the number of programs here comes a piece of legislation and lo and behold you're going to have nine new programs now quite frankly mr chairman there are so many that say why would you do this why would you not do an assessment of the needs and then put the money where the needs are and mr mckeon has done that if he has addressed the pell grants and putting the spending the funding increasing the pell grants which address the access component that is so important to our student another component that is in there that i think many of the members would be interested in is the changes that it makes in providing funds for year round pell grants there again answering a question and solving the problem that we hear from our constituents and the type pell grant program that they want the access that they want being certain that we're going to help those student who wish to pursue their education not only in the fall not only in the spring but the summer as well we know that this is very important as people look at new type schedules as they go look at moving on through the educational process yes and getting into the workforce we know that we have a different areas where we need employment and being able to finish a little bit earlier not everybody wants to go on a four or five year program there are some people that want to go through in a three year program three and a half year program and so this addresses a societal change and need that is there that allows that flexibility that students want and  is where we need to place the emphasis allowing people to take control individuals to take control and make decisions that are going to suit them and not having the bureaucracy make those for them which all too often when we create nine new entitlement programs with nine new bureaucracies that we don't see fast decision making on something we see this go into that black hole or the terminal all on hold that so many of our constituents continue to complain about every every day i would also like to command to this body and thank mr mckeon for the work that puts the emphasis on our military by providing for them extended deferment options for our returning soldiers who may need extra time to get settled and to return to careers and be able to began repaying any outstanding student loans certainly in my district the seventh district of tennessee this is something that has been recognized as a need we have so many that have served so honorably with one hundred first airborne at fort campbell and this is a provision that is important and it is one that is recognized by us by the minority by those of us on the side of the aisle and it one that we do express our thanks for being included that i make can an amendment the substituted is the right move the it is the right balance it friend the chairman for his leadership and the members of the committee for their exceptional work while i am very supportive of the bill's overall goal i have a concern that the bill incorporates the bush administration's proposal to significantly cut the yield on all lenders across the board students and parents have saved millions of dollars due to smaller competitive lenders offering consolidation loans that at lower interest rates greater competition leads to lower prices and more choices for the consumer i do want to thank the chairman for his recognition of small lenders  and quite honestly he's worked very very hard to get the legislation to this point and i know he continues to try to do that when i thank the chairman for a limiting the origination fee for small lenders because that's an important part of this bill as well it will lower interest rates for students in the future but we must ensure that individuals currently enrolled do not pay more when they're starting to repay their loans i look forward to working with chairman miller and ranking member and hope that this matter will be addressed in conference and i know the chairman has has committed to continue to try to do that we must ensure that we help all students parents and lenders equally and fairly thank you and i go back the balance of my time jomon yield back the balance of her gentleman from california on this i rise in support of the mckeon substitute amendment and i'm opposed to the underlying bill as it's written historically our federal government has limited in title meant spending to programs like medicare and social security and we're strokes still trying to work out how to are trying to figure out how to make those programs solvent and sustainable that the underlying bill creates nine new entitlement programs and knowing that entitlement programs never die we need to admit to the taxpayers that this passes that would be expected to kick in another fifteen to thirty billion dollars to cover the cost of these new entitlement programs starting in two thousand and thirteen and also also starts the precedent of creating entitlement programs for institutions and organizations this act does little to reduce college costs and short change those students who need help the most to pay for college the bill spends less than one third of the total savings on investing in low income students struggling to achieve their dreams of a college education rather than addressing the needs of our nation's low income students this bill spends billions of dollars on providing additional subsidies subsidies to institutions of higher education i urge my colleagues to instead support the mccain amendment which would increase  the amendment in addition makes two significant improvements to the pell grant program it provides funds for year round pell grants to help those students who wish to pursue their education not only in the fall and spring but in summer as well for too long the student aid programs have only address the needs of traditional dependent students who attend a fall and spring semester and then go home for summer it's time that we do more to meet the needs of working adults and nontraditional students who need greater flexibility in pursuing their educational goals the minute reduces interest rates for parents and grow and graduate students in the fell program who now pay eight point five percent instead of seven point nine percent which is paid by their peers in the direct loan program the simply no reason at all to charge parents and students different interest rates and this problem needs to be addressed as soon as possible i'm just appointed that my colleagues on the other side of the aisle did not see the need to help these parents and students who are being unfairly penalized under current law furthermore cement also helps our military as was mentioned earlier by providing extended deferment options for our returning soldiers who may need extra time to get settled before repaying any outstanding student loans this provision was included in the committee mark and for that i'm grateful i of mr mckeon's bill h r four seventy two which brings much needed transparency to the college cost issue as we all know rising costs rising college costs are a major concern of parents across the country who find it more and more difficult to pay the tuition their tuition bills yet no one can or will express explain why costs continue to increase at rates far exceeding the rate of inflation it's time to arm parents and students with information that can be used to make these wise choices in selecting an institution of higher learning and for these reasons i support i wholeheartedly support the mccain amendment as a substitute to this bill and urge passage of this very important amendment and with that i yield back the balance my time yield back the balance of his time the gentleman from california to miss the gentleman from texas ms jackson lee gentlewoman from texas recognized for two minutes the craft survive and expand without objection speak i rise in opposition to the amendment in the nature of a substitute for it under mind and it strikes all of the important initiatives that cause this legislation to be one of the imperative legislative initiatives of this congress it impact negatively the middle class it undermines the qualified teacher provision it takes away the reward for public service and of course it does not deal with the issue of philanthropic participation in college retention and financing but let me tell you what i am supporting i am supporting the single largest increase in college funding college aid since the g i bill i am supporting the mother who spoke to me on the way up to washington saying i'm a middle class single parent working to send my daughter to college and i jest can't do it does anybody understand that pleat i jest can't do it and what this aid package does what this incentive package does is it reinvested reinvest in america's young people it reinvest by strengthening the middle class by making college more affordable it increases the power of the pell grant through scholarship it ensures that we have qualified teachers in every classroom it is an equal opportunity promoter of education for americans and then it does something unique it does something that is not discriminatory it reflects on the value of historically black colleges hispanic serving colleges and other colleges that serve under sir populations i know the real truth of that representing texas southern university when our governor could find no other way to solve the problem of that college other than to put it into a conservatorship isn't it interesting mr chairman that if they put it into a conservative ship they would have lost all of their accreditations this bill invest in helping to retain students it gives them scholar ship it promotes the colleges you have another twenty twentieth's digital  additional thirty seconds i thank you mr speaker and its chairman and i thank the committee very much i don't know if this can be seen but it is clear when we show this example of what republicans have done in investing in our college education and what democrats have done i know that my good friend on the other side of the allegories with me that the education of our children is not a partisan issue and so i would encourage him to if you will ignore his motion  speaker unfortunately i rise in opposition to this bill in my opinion it's continues some broken promises to us by the majority party this bill is not fiscally responsible and it's not going to increase access to college education in this country yes it proposes to spend more money nine new entitlement programs that means nine new categories for mandatory spending but not in ways that will increase access i worked my way through college i was the first in my family to graduate from college and i'm actually still pain some of those student loans from going back to school recently and i'm grateful for the opportunities i've had to go to college and i'm committed to ensuring that every student in america has access to higher education it is really part of the american dream unfortunately this college relief bill does little to actually increase access r r the republican alternative would have roughly doubled the pell grant aid proposed in this bill that is direct help to students when they need it when they have to pay for twitchin at the beginning of each quarter reducing interest rates will help graduates with debt relief but it will not help students that are currently struggling to make to ocean the massive vast majority of spending in this bill provides token interest rate cuts for college graduates only one third of the new spending grants we must do more to fund programs like pell grants which actually do increase access and opportunities and then we can substitute would do just that we also must do more to address rising twistin cost  impact that is having on students ability to afford college tuition rates have risen above cost of inflation here's an example from my own state washington state over the past ten years the washington state university and the university of washington have both increased tuitions and fees by over eighty percent at the same time washington's per capita personal income has increased only about forty percent and inflation is a little over twenty percent we must address the root cause of this problem what is really driving to ition cost this bill does nothing to address skyrocketing cost of tuitions which is disastrous for students and parents the democrats have talked a lot about providing college really for students yet once again this bill does more to help graduates and institutions rather than helping our current or future college students our focus must be on remaining sure that every student every person who wants to go to college has that opportunity to do so and with that mr speaker i yield back the balance of my time gentlewoman yield back the balance of her time only my s gentleman from california on the republican side has eight and a half minutes remaining from california on the democratic side has eighteen minutes remaining the more speakers bob jewett california on the democratic side has no remaining speakers other than himself the gentleman from california to recognize happy deal to the ranking member of the higher education subcommittee the gentleman from florida mr keller such time as he may consume the gentleman from florida is recognized by a thank you speaker and i thank the gentleman for yielding i want to begin by thanking the chairman and also the ranking member for their hard work on this bill i know chairman miller has accommodated us when he can and opposed us when he must and i know we have work together as as much as possible i think we owe the public an explanation before we talk about our differences what we have in common and so let me begin with what both sides throughout this debate have in common and sensually three things first we believe that all children rich or poor should have the opportunity to go to college second we believe that there should be consequences and sunlight on those colleges who excessively increase tuitions and third we are the passport out of poverty for so many worthy young children from low and moderate income families and they deserve to be increased now there are four major differences in this bill and what these differences result in many of us republicans not being able regrettably to vote for this bill the first differences on entitlements how do you feel about new mandatory entitlements the democrat bill has nine new entitlement programs with mandatory spending the republican substitute has zero new entitlement programs how do you feel about pell grants which are money we give to low and moderate income families to help their their kids go to college today the appropriations committee is going to be increasing pell grants to four thousand seven hundred dollars under the democrat bill next year they will have an additional hundred dollars for a total of forty eight hundred dollars under the republican substitute students would have an additional three hundred fifty dollars for forty five thousand and fifty dollars so if you care about pell grants you do substantially better under this bill if you're a student than you do under the democrat bill how do you feel about paying down the deficit the democrats use only a billion and a half dollars to pay down the deficit we more than tripled that in the republican bill how do you feel about private sector versus government run programs we have a basic honest philosophical difference in this program and this belief republicans believe that competition among the private sector is good for lower prices and lower taxes democrats believe at least some do that big government run programs are better and if that means eventually raising taxes especially on the wealthy then so be it and we see that in the context of the student loan debate here republicans aren't afraid to take money out of the private student lenders we did so as part of the deficit reduction act we took sixteen billion dollars away f their subsidies but the democrat bill on top of the sixteen billion takes an additional eighteen point five billion it cuts the linder subsidies down to the bone to the point that the private student loan providers really won't be able to make a living if they're the small folks and will run many of mt out of business the big folks will stay in business and that's ok to some on the other side they prefer the direct student lending program under our system eighty percent of the loans on the federal level are provided with private sector money called the fell program twenty percent are the direct student loans and this bill stacks it heavily in favor of the direct loan program for example if you're a low income private or public sector employ such as a police officer or social worker or a firefighter and you work for at least ten years you get absolute forgiveness of your loan only and the direct program they don't forgive it in the private bell program they want encourage people in the direct program if you're a parent you want to take out a loan for your student for your child to go to college under the belt program which is a private program you have to pay eight point five percent under the direct lending program from the government only seven point nine percent again trying to encourage people to go the big government program and that was a drafting error that the republican congress made when we were passing the deficit reduction act and we tried to correct it and this bill the democrats knew about it and they didn't let us correct it and i suspect this my feeling it's because they expressly favor the direct loan program so we have a philosophical difference i think the motives on both sides are pure we have an honest difference of opinion with regard to entitlements pell grant funding paying down the debt and private sector involvement and for these reasons mr speaker i will urge my colleagues to vote yes in favor of the mckeon substitute and no on the underlying bill and i would yield back the balance of my time gentleman yield back the balance of his time and how much time we have remained the gentleman from california has for four minutes remaining and you mr speaker again i think that this has been an interesting debate today i think the  the chairman for giving us the opportunity to offer our substitute i know he didn't have to do that and and i appreciate the opportunity to discuss some of the differences and and to present an alternative you know for years i served as a subcommittee chairman on the higher education committee and during that time i talked about accessibility accountability and affordability for higher education the only opportunity that that people have to better their lot in life here in this country is through education and i've seen studies that show that forty percent of our young people from lower income families are not able to go to college and that just is not acceptable and i think that with our substitute where we put an additional almost ten billion dollars into  think that is a tremendous opportunity to help the affordability aspect of college again through this bill there is nothing done to lower the cost of to wish and to make to asian or make the higher education experience more affordable as i said the cost of a higher education during the last twenty years has gone up four times faster than the rate of inflation miss mcmorris rodgers mentioned earlier in her state the cost of tuition has gone up in the last few years eighty percent while the cost of inflation has gone up twenty percent again that is still four times faster it's going to faster than the cost of health care and i think that that that is a crisis that some way we need to come together on state governments federal government students parents we all need to come together come to grips with this issue because to prepare a workforce that's going to carry us through this twenty first century and be competitive throughout the world we're going to have to do something to make it possible for our young people to get a higher edge cation i don't think getting new entitlements is the way to do it i think increasing pell grants is very important and for that reason i encourage our colleagues to support the amendment the substitute amendment if that passes then support the bill if it doesn't pass i encourage  to vote against the underlying bill and with that i yield back the balance of my time gentleman yield back the balance of this time the gentleman from california is right i can inquire how much time i have the gentleman from california has eighteen committee i think this has been a very good debate because this is been a debate about which direction this country should go in and i believe will go in and the direction that the american people want this country to go and parents all over car all over this nation hear every day from business leaders from educational leaders from the media they hear that for america to be competitive we've got to have a smarter workforce a better tax killed workforce a better workforce so that we can and we can continue america's leadership in the world in the in this economics of the world and the national security of this country the keys to that to that workforce the key to that competitiveness again we're told by the very people who are hiring those individuals say that you must have a college education what used to be good enough at a high graduation from high school is no longer good enough today you have to have advanced learning it may be it may be in a professional school it may be in a trade school it may be in a community college it may be in a four year college you may get some of it now and some of it later but the fact of the matter is you need those skills yes but what has happened over this time is a college education as increases rapidly as anything else in society in fact more rapidly than many other indicators in our economy over thirty five to forty percent over the last five years above inflation what does that meant that that meant families that thought they could afford that education now find that they have to squeeze harder that many people who thought they were going to have to borrow money are now going to have to borrow money that many people who thought they were going to be able to go to college are now deciding that they can no longer go to college they're going to postpone it or maybe not go at all that's not good for america that's not good for america's economy that's not good for america's democratic institutions and it's not good for our society we need those young people to go to college what this legislation does today is says to those individuals who are fully qualified to go to college we will not deny you access to the college of your choice to the education of your choice to the career of your choice in the curriculum of your choice because you can't afford to pay for we're going to help you we're not going to give you everything you need your family still going to have to sacrifice you're still going to have to pay back loans but we're going to give you greater access to that to the ability to do that we're to take this country in a new direction we're going to take this country in a direction where we place a priority a focus and a vision for education in this in america today because we know we must we're told again by the leaders of all of the new technologies the new companies the people who are are investing in the future that we were the beneficiaries of when john kennedy said that he wanted to send a person to the moon and bring them back safely it was more than a moon shot john kennedy captured our imagination he captured world leadership with that decision and over the next decade we did exactly as he directed but you know what else they do they gave twenty eight thousand high performing college students a grant to go to to go to graduate school so they didn't have to borrow money they didn't have to walk around with a ten cup they didn't have to put themselves into debt so they could use their best skills and talent to create the space program you know what they created after they created the space program they created intel they created microsoft they created he was that packard they created the infrastructure of this nation now did we whine and moan because they got a grant from the taxpayers use our money they created millions of jobs in this country over the next four decades that's what this is about those are the investments that my grandparents made in my education before they ever met me those the invest those of the investments that my parents made in my education after they met me they still thought it was worth something and those are the investments that have made this country the greatest and strongest nation in the world has made us an economic leader has given us the ability to lead the world we want to turn our back on it now if you accept the substitute you're turning your back on that idea th republicans say well we're just going to take a little less money but we're going to put it all in the republicans after flatlining tell grant all of these years where they had the opportunity to do something did nothing now they want to love this bill to death by putting all of the money in the pell grant this is what this legislation will do for pell recipients it will take them up to fifty two hundred dollars in a pell grant that may or may not pay for their education for that year but it's a big leap forward but we also recognize something else that this isn't the only constituency struggling to pay for education in this country no millions millions of students who will take out a subsidized student loan and for those students and their parents who will help them pay it back if they are that fortunate for those students will be paying for the by themselves were saying we'll cut the interest rate in half when you graduate and you start to repay your loan you borrow the money today you pay your tuition and when it comes time to pay your loan your interest rate is half what it is today because we know that those middle income families in this country are struggling as hard as anybody they have the same vision the same hope and the same aspirations for their children so that's why we're doing this because it's the best investment we can make in this country and that talent of our children in the brilliance and the excitement in the vision of those children that's what this legislation is about but that's not what this substitute legislation is about you cannot walk away from them i find it interesting i find it interesting that just four months ago five months ago one hundred twenty four republicans voted to cut those interest rates for middle income families and their children and now they're going to vote vote against it they voted for then and now they're going to vote against it today what was going on did they believe it then or they don't believe it now which is it but the fact of the matter is this is about whether or not those families that struggle they may be single parents they may be two hundred families they may be families that find themselves with one two or three kids in college at the same time this government should help them because those children will return that gift of this nation back to this nation time and time again over the the life of their earnings over their careers they will give back to this nation because we made that investment as my parents and grandparents made in us if you vote again if you voted if you vote for the substitute you get rid of the interest rate cuts for those middle income families and also for these very same tell receptive over half of these students won't have to borrow money because the pell grant isn't enough so they participate also and that interest rate cut you fail to participate in the loan forgiveness for the teacher for the firefighter for the policeman for the special ed education teacher for first responders for those people in critical occupations that give so much to the society but they're not the highest paying jobs were telling then if you stand a job five years we'll give you five thousand dollars in loan forgiveness for a student graduates with an average debt of around thirteen fourteen thousand dollars that's a significant amount of loan forgiveness what do we get we get an educated firefighter an educator policeman a school teacher we get these people for high performing college students who are willing to go into teaching and go into math science and engineering and then go to the most difficult schools to teach we're saying we'll give you four thousand dollars a year intuition assistance while you're in school not later will reduce up to sixteen thousand dollars again an investment because we now know that a highly qualified teacher can drop dramatically change the educational outcomes in the futures first for the for the children in ways that we can only dream about that's an important investment because that investment in that teacher will be invested in all of those students that come across his or her line of vision in those classes that's why this legislation is about a vision for america that's why this legislation goes in the different direction we're stopped that day when we flatline aid to education in this country we want to invest in young people we want their families to be able to invest with us and that's the importance of this legislation and clearly the commitment that we make to minority serving institutions so that those students who are fully qualified to go to school go to school receive the kind of help to keep them in school so that they don't end dropping out with the debt on the loans that they took we want that success it's a problem that's recognized across the country we address it we raise the cap on the amount of money that families can borrow it's not great news to hear we let you borrow more but it's a lot cheaper than if you have to borrow it in the private loan market it's mean it's three point eight percent here and if it's ten twelve thirteen fourteen fifteen percent in the private market that means a lot to families that means a lot to students that's what this legislation is about i would ask all of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to reject this the substitute to vote for the passage of the final bill and let's take america to a new future let's take america to new heights let's take america to new greatness on the next generation of discoverers of innovators and of economic creators thank you so very much gentleman yield back the balance of his time pursuant to house resolution five thirty one previous question is ordered on the bill as amended and the amendment by the gentleman from california mr mckeon question is on the amendment by the gentleman from california mr mckeon those in favor say aye those opposed say no in gentleman from california objects to the vote on the ground that a koran is not present and makes the point of order that a quorum is not present of corum is not present under the rule of the gays and they are ordered members will record their votes by electronic device this will be a fifteen minute