Date: 2007-01-17
Speaker: GEORGE MILLER (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: California

Mr. Speaker. for purposes of a unanimous consent request. I yield to the gentleman from Oregon. (Mr. WU asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.) Mr. WU. Mr. Speaker. I rise in support of H.R. 5. the legislation to lower student loan interest rates. According to the Department of Education. twothirds of undergraduate students will take out a Federal student loan this year to help finance their college education. As tuition costs swell and grantaid fails to keep pace. students and their families are increasingly turning to loans as the primary mechanism to finance a higher education. While student loans make the college dream a reality for millions. they all too often turn into a nightmare of debt. Over the past eight years the typical student loan debt has more than doubled to approximately $19.000. In addition. 39 percent of all student borrowers now graduate with unmanageable debt levels. Too many student borrowers struggle to make their monthly loan payments. and many must forgo savings. public service careers. and home ownership. Borrowing for higher education should be a sound investment for the future. both for the student. and our society. Yet. today we are asking far too many students to mortgage their future at too high a cost. I am proud to support this legislation which will help ease the burden of student loans. H.R. 5 will cut the interest rate for subsidized student loans in half to 3.4 percent. For a student with $13.800 in student loans. this will save them $4.400 in interest over the life of their loan and will help make the college dream a viable reality for countless students. I have been working in Congress to do just that. I have been pushing for legislation that will not only make student financial aid more flexible for students but also ease the financial burden of student loans. For instance. I have been pushing for passage of the Student Loan Interest Full Deductibility Act. which would allow eligible taxpayers to deduct the full amount of their student loan interest and would remove the current income cap limiting the deduction. Current law only allows for $2.500 to be deducted. even though many students pay thousands more each year in student loan interest. and phases out this deduction if a taxpayers income is greater $50.000 a year. I have also been advocating for the Community College Partnership Act. which would create partnerships between community colleges and fouryear institutions to encourage students to continue their education at a college or university. This is based on an Oregon idea where colleges noticed their students were taking classes in nontraditional ways. Students would take classes at a community college in the morning. go to work. and then take another class at a different campus at night. or vice versa. However. in order to create such a class schedule. the students had to deal with two sets of administrations. two sets of paperwork. and two sets of financial aid. In order to encourage more of these students to continue and complete their studies at the 4year institution. Portland State University partnered with neighboring community colleges to make this transition seamless through dual enrollment programs in which enrollees class credits. financial aid. and administrative paperwork seamlessly transfer between the schools. The Community College Partnership Act expands on this idea by establishing a competitive grant program to encourage or expand similar partnerships throughout the United States. Finally. I am proud to be investigating the high price of college textbooks. Recent news reports have exposed what has long been experienced by students and college bookstores: oftep the exact same college textbooks that American college students are required to buy for class are sold overseas for less than half the price. This situation does not meet the test of fairness and common sense. and it is especially troubling when one considers the skyrocketing cost of higher education in general and of college textbooks in particular. It is increasingly common for students to pay in excess of $1.000 per school year for textbooks and supplies alone. Last Congress. I was successful in getting the Government Accountability Office to investigate the high price of college textbooks and the disparity of prices between textbooks sold in the United States and overseas. The GAG report unmasked the problem of rising prices of college textbooks. Given this. Congressman BUCK McKEON and I commissioned the Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance to further study the problem and to develop solutions. Again. I am pleased to support H.R. 5 today because it will help address the rising cost of college. We are at the dawn of a hew economyone that is based on knowledge. A higher education is more important than ever in this economy. We must work on policies that not only improve access to a higher education but also makes this education more affordable. That is what H.R. 5 is about. and I urge my colleagues to support it.