Date: 2007-07-11
Speaker: GEORGE MILLER (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: California

Mr. Speaker. this motion to recommit says this will not allow a public officeholder or a lobbyist to get loan forgiveness. This has never been raised. and if you dont want them to get it. write me a letter and we will take care of it. But what this does is this says that you must report this back promptly. so this kills this bill. This kills this bill. The greatest contribution to helping families pay for education since the GI bill. they want to kill it. Cutting interest rates in half for middleincome families. they want to kill it. You could have written the motion another way. You deliberately wrote it this way so you could kill this bill. What is it you dont like about this bill? You dont like the fact that while you were in power. after years of flatlining the Pell -Grant. we finally have given the biggest increase in decades for the poorest kids in the country. You dont like that. so you want to kill the bill. You dont like the fact that we are going to take 5 million middleclass kids and extend to them a loan with an interest rate that is cut in half while their families are struggling to get them through college. They -are making sacrifices every year. You are going to do this. You are going to kill this bill? Are you proud of this amendment that you are going to try to kill this bill? Say it louder. that you are proud. What about loan forgiveness? This amendment supposedly is about loan forgiveness. but in the process. they kill loan forgiveness to firefighters and policemen and nurses and teachers of special education and people who hold our society together and make it work. they kill that. What is it they dont like about having a society that can help its children? What is it they dont like about partnering up with families who want to help pay their kids education. that borrow money. that are told every day they have to save more for this education. and here we are giving them loan forgiveness. We dre giving them loan forgiveness because they have chosen to go into a career that doesnt pay very well. We are giving them an interest rate cut that will save them $4.000. That loan forgiveness will save them $5.000. We are raising the amount of money that they can borrow. no great gift to their parents. money that they can borrow. but they dont have to go to the private market and pay 15 percent. They can lay 3.8 percent. 0I 1530 Thats what this legislation is about. What.is it you dont understand about the American peoples vision? Mr. Speaker. what is it they dont understand about the American peoples vision for this country? What is it you dont understand that America wants to go in a new direction? What is it you dont understand about this vision of the future where we have faith in our children. where they have the confidence of their parents. they have the vision that their kids can succeed. that they can be the next generation of discoverers. of innovators. of those who create economic opportunities and hire other people or get hired? Thats the vision America wants. and it needs help to pay for that education. and this is what this legislation does. Thats what this legislation does. Yes. we help those minorityserving institutions. I guess you dont like that either. 1r7556 July 11. 2007 . COI And yes. we thought we would partner up with some of the richest people in the world who said that if you partner up. we think we can raise hundreds of millions of dollars for poor children. So we said. you raise $1. well match it with 50 cents. Theyre now telling us they think they can raise hundreds of millions of dollars of private money. Sounds kind of Republican to me. but what the hell. I dont know.