August 1, 2012 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — HOUSE H5531 

of the voting process is not a partisan 

issue, but an issue that is important to 

all citizens and vital to the strength of 

America. 

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JOE HARTLE 

The SPEAKER pro tempore. The 

Chair recognizes the gentleman from 

Pennsylvania (Mr. THOMPSON) for 5 

minutes. 

Mr. THOMPSON of Pennsylvania. 

Mr. Speaker, today I rise to recognize 

and remember Joe Hartle—a friend and 

a lifelong farmer of Centre County, 

Pennsylvania, which is located in the 

Commonwealth’s Fifth Congressional 

District. 

Joe Hartle was a distinguished leader 

in both the agricultural and fair industries, and was a staple in the Centre 

County community. Sadly, he passed 

away in March of 2012. 

First elected at the age of 17, Joe 

served on the Centre County Grange 

Fair committee for more than 60 years. 

For the past 25 years, Joe Hartle faithfully served as president of the Grange 

Encampment and Fair. Joe was instrumental in making the Centre County 

Grange Fair a showcase for agriculture 

with events to satisfy all ages. 

Through his leadership and hard work, 

the grange fair has become one of the 

leading fairs in the State. Held annually the week before Labor Day, the 

Centre County Grange Fair has become 

the largest encampment east of the 

Mississippi, and it highlights Pennsylvania’s number one industry—agriculture. 

In addition to his work, family was 

always a very important part of Joe 

Hartle’s life. He was married to his 

wife, Gladys, for 56 years. They had 

five children—Linda, Jan, Tom, Deb, 

and Betsy—and 11 grandchildren. I 

want to thank Joe for a life spent serving others and a legacy for Centre 

County that will live on for generations. 

Rest with the Lord, my friend. 

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KNOW BEFORE YOU OWE ACT 

The SPEAKER pro tempore. The 

Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 

Pennsylvania (Ms. SCHWARTZ) for 5 

minutes. 

Ms. SCHWARTZ. As August begins, 

millions of young people across the 

country are preparing to head off to 

college. Fall brings not only a return 

to course selection and roommates and 

football games but also to high college 

tuition bills. In my home State of 

Pennsylvania, the average cost of tuition and fees tops $12,000 for a public 4- 

year school and $32,000 a year for a private university. These high costs force 

70 percent of Pennsylvania college students to take out student loans. 

One of the biggest decisions facing 

students and college graduates is not 

just the amounts they borrow but who 

their lenders will be and whether they 

will be private lenders or Federal 

loans. Federal loans are simply a better deal. They offer lower, fixed interest rates, consumer protections and 

manageable repayment options. Private student loans, on the other hand, 

typically have uncapped, variable 

rates, hefty fees and few consumer protections. From 2001 to 2008, the private 

student loan market exploded, increasing from $5 billion to $20 billion. Lenders loosened underwriting standards 

and often cut school financial aid offices out of the process. 

While students may need private 

loans, they should know the differences 

between private lenders and Federal 

loans and be fully informed of the differences in cost and obligation. Unfortunately, right now, a majority of student loan borrowers who are turning to 

more expensive student loan programs 

of private options do so without fully 

exhausting all of the Federal student 

loan options available to them. This 

means that student borrowers unnecessarily take on increased costs. 

That’s why I’ve joined with my colleagues, Representatives JARED POLIS

and TIM BISHOP, to introduce the Know 

Before You Owe Act in order to make 

sure that students and their families 

have access to vital information regarding their student loan programs. 

The legislation requires schools to 

counsel students on the financial aid 

options available to them, and it requires private lenders to adopt commonsense steps to protect student borrowers. The Know Before You Owe Act 

will empower students and their families to make informed decisions about 

financing their educations. 

Access to higher education is a top 

priority for middle class families. They 

know that higher education is one of 

the keys to being able to succeed in a 

competitive 21st-century marketplace. 

They are willing to invest in their futures by taking out student loans in 

order to afford college. We need to ensure that students have full and complete information about the most affordable student loan options available 

to them in order to fight back against 

those who might take unscrupulous advantage of families facing tough financial decisions. 

I urge my colleagues to join with me 

in supporting this important legislation and to better ensure that millions 

of Americans can afford college without taking unnecessary long-term financial hardship and risk. 

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PRESCRIPTION DRUG ABUSE 

The SPEAKER pro tempore. The 

Chair recognizes the gentleman from 

Massachusetts (Mr. KEATING) for 5 minutes. 

Mr. KEATING. I would like to thank 

Congressman RAHALL for organizing 

this morning-hour on prescription drug 

abuse. I would also like to thank Chairman ROGERS for his work as well as 

Congresswoman MARY BONO MACK, 

Congressman STEVE LYNCH, and all 

Members with the Prescription Drug 

Abuse Caucus. 

Prescription drug abuse is defined 

now as an epidemic in this country, 

and the cost of this epidemic is more 

than $70 billion a year. This is by no 

means just a criminal issue, and that’s 

where the stigma sometimes makes 

this issue more difficult. It is, indeed, a 

public health issue, and for this reason 

Congress needs to step in. 

Painkillers account for the country’s 

fastest growing area of drug abuse, 

which is ahead of cocaine, heroin, and 

methamphetamine. Throughout my 12- 

year career as a Norfolk County district attorney in Massachusetts, the 

susceptibility of new users, particularly of teenagers, to these drugs has 

been a recurring theme. As district attorney, I have seen in concrete terms 

that this scourge goes across every social and economic boundary that exists. 

I have seen law enforcement officials, 

while on duty and who were involved in 

automobile accidents, take these painkillers, become addicted and actually 

go out with their guns and rob—armed 

robbery—banks and other institutions 

in order to just try and feed their habits. I’ve seen real estate professionals 

get involved and go to open houses just 

to search medicine cabinets in order to 

fulfill their habits. I have also seen 

young people begin addictions and 

abuses of prescription drugs from their 

families’ medicine cabinets, finding 

that later on they cannot afford their 

habits, and move to a cheaper, purer 

form of heroin. 

b 1040 

I’ve seen the public health effects of 

this as well. I’ve seen the HIV disease 

spread to people. I’ve seen 14-year-old 

girls with hepatitis C as a result of trying to deal with this scourge that is an 

epidemic around our country. 

In Massachusetts alone, 1.7 people 

every day die of an opiate-derivative 

overdose. In 2010, the National Institute of Drug Abuse showed that 2.7 percent of eighth-graders, 7.7 percent of 

10th-graders, and 8 percent of 12thgraders abused Vicodin. Over 2 percent 

of eighth-graders, almost 5 percent of 

10th-graders, and over 5 percent of 

12th-graders abused OxyContin for nonmedical purposes at least once in the 

year prior to that survey. This is why 

I’ve introduced the Stop Tampering of 

Prescription Pills Act, the STOPP Act 

of 2012, with Chairman ROGERS, Congresswoman BONO MACK, and my other 

colleagues. 

Currently, tamper-resistant mechanisms are in use for some drugs, but 

this bill is the first of its kind Federal 

legislation to put a clear pathway for 

others to come to market. The process 

outlined in the bill applies both to 

brand name and generic drugs, both to 

time-release and to immediate-release 

pills. Initially, we will incentivize the 

use of these tamper-resistant processes. Then, in time, they’ll be required. This bill is not a silver bullet 

by any stretch of the imagination, but 


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