Kendrick Meek: “I rise to sort of prick the Congress' conscience about some of the things that happen in H.R. 1720. I was one of the 79…”

“I rise to sort of prick the Congress' conscience about some of the things that happen in H.R. 1720. I was one of the 79 people on this floor who voted against this bill when it came before us before, and today, as I read the conference report on the Privatization Act, I do not see too many changes in the concerns which I had the very first time. I voted against the bill at that time not because of the Sallie Mae situation, in that I thought that was a progressive move to try to consolidate and to try to make the entire program move more smoothly, but I cannot sit here and not tell my colleagues that some of the things that they left out of this bill which were so appealing and so begged for in their committee, they still did not make any changes this time. First of all, I disagree vehemently about the way they decided to close out some of the programs which are currently funded as if they were just by Topsy, be able to adjust themselves to the changes which they have made or did not make in 1790 that were so many. First of all, I want to give my colleagues just a little bit of information. I worked in higher education for 40 odd years straight through, and I saw how these Federal programs worked as far as the scholarship programs, financial aid, all of them worked.”