Political Quotes

“Unless Congress acts in the next 11 days, the interest rates for the subsidized Stafford student loan program are going to increase from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent. This is at a time when student loan debt now has topped the $1 trillion number, which is according to the Federal Reserve Bank. This is a program which will provide relief for over 7 million college students who literally today are already trying to budget for next fall's semester at colleges and universities--at 2-year colleges, at 4-year colleges. Yet this Congress left for 10 days, up until yesterday, for another recess--the ninth recess this year. This number, 11 days until the rate-hike increase, should probably be 6 days because that's all the number of days that the Speaker has scheduled between now and July 1. How did we get to this point? In 2007, when the Democrats controlled the Congress, we voted for the College Class Reduction Act, with Republican support, which cut the rate for the subsidized Stafford student loan program from 6.8 percent to 3.4 percent. That has helped over 15 million college kids over the last 5 years. It was a sunset measure, like many other bills that pass in this Congress; and last July 25, on that podium, President Obama challenged this Congress to avoid allowing that rate to double on July 1. For 3 solid months, we had absolutely no action in this Congress--no hearings, no markup, no bill. Luckily, external pressure was exercised on this Chamber.…”