Date: 2005-10-19
Speaker: WASSERMAN SCHULTZ (democrat)
Chamber: H

Mr. Speaker. I thank the gentleman from Ohio. I feel a little odd over here. But. Mr. Speaker. if more of the people on this side of the chamber thought like me. then we wpuld be improving things really significantly here. So I think maybe if I stand here long enough. maybe the philosophical brain waves will travel over here. It is wonderful to have our colleague from Ohio join us in the 30Something group. We have been trying to encourage our fellow 30Something Members to join us down here to talk about the things that resonate universally across this country. The gentleman is absolutely right. both gentlemen are. It does not matter whether you are in New Jersey. Ohio. Oklahoma. Florida. Idaho. California. the things that we talk about on this floor during our -hour are resonating and run deep in terms of their impact on Americans. whether you are from the right wing of the spectrum or the left wing of the spectrum. Let us take the cost of college. Obviously. people in our generation. whether they are raising children that are about to go to college. or whether they. in the case of people who are maybe closer to the ages of the gentleman from Oklahoma and the gentleman from Ohio . who are closer to having been in college than perhaps the gentleman from Florida and I are. the rising costs of college are just really getting out of control. The gentleman. from Florida and I just turned 39 These loans are the most basic and a couple of weeks ago. so we are in our most used types of loans of SBAs busilast year of eligibility here. So listen.-I ness loan programs. Under this budget. am a woman. and I am acknowledging for the second year in a row. the budgthat. et eliminates appropriations for small But there was an article in my paper business 7(a) loans and proposes to run today in the South. Florida Sun Sen- the program solely through fee intinel that talked about the cost of col- creases. substantially raising the costs lege having risen by onethird over the for small business and lenders. last 5 years. Onethird. Parents have We talk about these rural commubeen preparing every year for yet an- nities again. They get out of college other hit in their pocketbook. The av- like at Southeastern in Durant or they erage college costs today at a private are at NSU in Kulaqua. they have that college are $21.000. and almost $5.500 at degree. they are going for that seed a public university. It does not matter capital. They want to start a new busiwhether you are in a red State or a ness. We have always been the party of blue State. and I am going to claim small business. We have always been Florida as a purple State. We are 5050 the party of Main Street. going out and right down the line when it comes to striking out on your own. This budget those elections. so I am not willing to slashes those programs. cede that we are a red State just yet. " Another thing. SBA business inforWe cannot have our college students mation centers. joint ventures between face the doubledigit tuition increases the U.S. Small Business Administrathat have been rained down upon them. tion and private partners. they provide coupled with the deep financial aid the latest in hightech hardware. softcuts that have been proposed. That is ware. and telecommunications to help what is coming out of this Congress startup and expanding businesses. right now. They also offer a wide array of counOne of the things that we mentioned seling services. Under this budget. that last night was that while we are very program is eliminated. critical of the actions that are being One more. Micro loan program. This proposed here by this Republican lead- program. provides very small loans to ership. we do have our own set of plans. startups and targets mainly lowinparticularly in terms of how we would come entrepreneurs. In 2003. this vital approach higher education and making program provided $26.5 million in loans college less expensive. and an additional $15 million in techWe would make college more afford- nical assistance. The micro loan proable in several ways. Our proposal gram enables individuals to become would guarantee a $500 boost to the selfsufficient while creating jobs and maximum Pell grant scholarship. We contributing to economic development would give students the choice between in local communities. either a fixed or a variable interest Under this budget. every single dollar rate when they consolidate their stu- is eliminated. Think about that We dent loans. and we would do so without are talking about .growing the econraising costs for students. We would omy. we are talking about creating keep Congresss promise tha t was made. jobs. Right now. we are creating inflain 2002 on the Republican watch. which tion. because we have such high energy still has not been fulfilled. to lower the costs. interest rate cap on student loans at 6.8 Mr. RYAN of Ohio. That one program percent. The Republican bill reverses was for lowincome folks? that bipartisan agreement and raises Mr. BOREN. Absolutely. student interest rate caps to 8.25 per- Mr. RYAN of Ohio. This is almost cent. . hysterical. in a bad sense hysterical. We absolutely have to do not just We were in the Committee on Eduright by our students. but we have td cation and the Workforce today markat least do what we say we are going to ing up the TANF bill. We offered an do. You cannot just talk about low- amendment to raise the minimum ering the cost andpxpanding access to wage to a living wage. Shot down. We higher education. you actually have to offered an amendment that we wanted follow up with action on it. And this to give more money for people who Republican Congress and their leader- were going from welfare to work. we ship has been dropping themselves into were going to step in and provide them a fullscale reversal and literally clos- with child care. more money for child ing off access do higher education to care. We have a study that says you Americans across this country. need about $8 billion for these people to.