Date: 2013-07-31
Speaker: GEORGE MILLER (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: California

Mr. Speaker. I yield myself 4 minutes. Mr. Speaker. I rise in support of the Bipartisan Student Loan Certainty Act. It has been nearly a month since interest rates on student loans were allowed to double on millions of our neediest students. but thanks to the bipartisan negotiations in the Senate. we now have a solution that provides real relief. And I want to thank Senator DURBIN. Senator HARKIN. Senator MANCHIN. and Senator KING for all of their work on this effort. Thanks to this legislation. over the next 5 years. borrowers across the country will save $25 billion in interest payments. In my home State of California. this bill will cut the cost of college for more than 550.000 students this coming academic year. It was worth the wait. When we started work on this issue. I said that any longterm solution to student loan interest rates must help. not harm the students or their families. must not make college more expensive. and it must protect students in the future from spiking interest rates. I believe that this bipartisan bill accomplishes that goal. It locks in interest rates for borrowers when they sign on to their loans. it provides a reasonable cap to protect students from rising interest rates. and it rolls back the doubling of interest rates. saving students and families real money right now. Todays bipartisan student loan deal stands in stark contrast to the partisan bill passed by the House majority in May. The bill would have made college more expensive by nearly $4 billion to students and their families. It would have subjected students to a baitandswitch scheme. It offered students teaser rates that balloon annually. leaving students deeper in debt and guessing what they will owe. If you look at this chart. you will see that. under the bipartisan agreement were voting on today. it will cost students about $11.363. The current law raises the cost to $14.000. and the bill that passed the House. the Republican bill. was $16.400. So its been well worth students to have this disagreement. to have this wait so that we could save this kind of money for students and families. Next years freshmen who borrow a maximum amount of subsidized and unsubsidized Stafford loans over 5 years would have paid $5.000 more in interest rates under the House Republican plan than under todays bipartisan compromise. and nearly $2.000 more than if we did nothing. The House majoritys solution wasnt a solution at all. Their approach was best summed up by the chair of the Higher Education Subcommittee who recently said. "It is not the role of the Congress to make college affordable or accessible." I couldnt disagree more. That statement explains why their bill piled debt on the backs of students rather than trying to lighten the load. The Senate bill before us today takes the opposite approach. It saves students and families money. I understand the concerns that some have raised by this solution. While it provides real relief for the next few years. it does not solve the longterm student debt crisis. We have much more work to do to address the underlying cost of college. and we must remain on guard against any unacceptable rise in interest rates. In the meantime. we now have a bill that will make a positive difference to families struggling to pay for college. Today. I ask the Republican majority to drop their support for the original House bill that was so devastating to students and families and. instead. support this bipartisan bill that delivers real interest rate relief for millions of Americans. I reserve the balance of my time.