Date: 2013-05-23
Speaker: GEORGE MILLER (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: California

Mr. Speaker. I yield myself the balance of my time. I want to thank all of my colleagues who entered into the debate here this morning on this legislation. I think it is clear that there is a very big difference between our positions on this legislation. theres a very big difference between the Presidents bill. who is trying to use a market system. and this bill before us. Mr. KLINEs bill. that uses a market system. The fact is that the Presidents bill saves students billions of dollars. but the Republicans would not make President Obamas bill in order for consideration. Why not? They say its like theyre doing the same thing as the President. Well. theyre not. In fact. theyre adding $4 billion worth of debt onto the backs of students over their program. And how can they possibly do that? Youve heard my colleagues on this side of the aisle speak to the issues that we hear all of the time when we go home. The struggle of students. the struggle of families. be they lowincome. be they middleincome. to get access and to be able to complete a college education. to get access to a community college. to a State college system. to get a certificate. to get a degree that will allow them to participate in the American society. in the American economy. Thats part of the American Dream. Yes. we lowered the interest rates to 3.4 percent. and theyve held over a period of years. And they held over those exact same years when families were under the most stress because of this recession that was created on Wall Street and the scandals that took away 70 percent of the wealth of African American and Hispanic families in this country. that destroyed the equity and good chunks of middle America because of teaser rate loans. subprime loans. And what is happening today in the private market? The banks are getting money from the Treasury at 0.75 interest. and theyre loaning it to families in private student loans. If you have good credit. theyll loan it to you for somewhere around 7 percent. Bankers used to go die and go to heaven if they could get a 7 percent spread. Thats how you become a billionaire. Get it at 0.75 and put it out at 7. And if your credit rating is not so good. those statistics sort of suggest you drift towards 13 percent. Obviously. the students and middle class cant survive in that market for the most part. and thats why we have a student loan program. Thats why we took this program away from the banks a number of years ago. We took the $60 billion that we were giving to the banks to loan the publics money to students and we said why dont we put that to use for families. and we did. And we lowered the interest rates. and we increased the participation in the Pell Grants. made it available. We increased some loan limits. We gave people a chance to manage their debt after they graduated. so the more you earn. the more you pay. but you dont get crushed on your first job that may not have the best salary. even though its the career you want to go in and it takes time to get that salary. We made it more affordable for Americas families. Yes. we lowered the debt to 3.4 percent. It was paid for. and thats all we could afford. Congress will make that decision. Last year. the Congress made a decision to extend it. This year. theyve decided that they dont want to extend it on the other side of the aisle. So. fine. come up with a plan. But the plan they came up with is worse than having the 3.4 percent double on July 1. How can you develop a plan thats worse for students? I guess maybe if you go home and everybody in your district is working and everybody is participating in this slowgrowing economy thats getting better. I dont know. Families I represent. theyre still struggling. The recession hasnt left town. The recession hasnt left the country. If you pick up The Wall Street Journal today. theres greater concern about whats happening in China dragging down the world economy. theres greater concern about the Europeans dragging down the world economy. America is trying to struggle and the students are trying to struggle. and were going to come along and more than double the rate. Were going to give them a teaser rate. though. This next September when families go out and they get a rate. it will be probably somewhat lower than the current rate. But that loan will be adjusted. and they dont know what those rates are going to be. As long as theyre paying on that loan. that loan will continue to be adjusted. We just saw that history in America. We saw what that did. I dont have a problem going to a market system. How about a fair one? When the President went to a market system for the subsidized Stafford loan. he said on the market system well go to 0.9. They said they would go to 2.510 years plus 2.5. The President said 10 years plus 0.9. There are a lot of ways to go to a market system. You dont have to punish the American family. You dont have to punish the students in school to go to a market system. I wish the President had a cap. The gentleman has a cap. This could be worked out. but we dont do things bipartisanly anymore in the Congress of the United States. So. because we cant get the President and the majority on the Education and the Workforce Committee to sit down and work out the market systembecause thats not allowed and we dont do bipartisan workthe victims are going to be the families and the students. and. in the long term. our Nation. Every Member of Congress has come to this floor and has said how important this education system is to our future economic growth. to competing in a globalized world. to have innovation. to have discovery. to have job creation. Were now creating a drag on job creation. Were now creating a drag on the opportunities for families. We are creating a drag on the ability to achieve the American Dreamand a college education is part of that dream. but a college education is also critical to keeping this economy and this society moving. I would hope that my colleagues. whether they are committed to a market rate or not. would understand that this is a very flawed market rate. Mr. Speaker. I yield back the balance of my time.