Katie Porter: “Mr. Chairman, one of the matters that the other side has conveniently failed to address... is the fact that what we are…”

“Mr. Chairman, one of the matters that the other side has conveniently failed to address... is the fact that what we are attempting to do by increasing funding for Pell Grants is to get more access for more young people of modest means to get a higher education. One of the difficulties is that every time we raise the Pell Grants, the colleges and universities across this country raise their tuition and expenses, and we buy no new access. So simply raising the money, unfortunately, does not get us greater access. In fact, as one of the speakers said earlier, education inflation has outstripped the increases that all of us have strongly supported in Pell Grants. We really ought to all be concerned about this trend. Now, I would say to the gentlewoman offering the amendment, our bill increases student financial aid by $763 million, an increase of 8.1 percent. That is about what we have been trying to do every year. That is a 6 percent real increase: a large increase. We are, obviously, concerned, as you do not have to be, with the bottom line.”