Tom Harkin: “I think the Senator is being very reasonable. I think these are the minimum kinds of things we ought to do, as I said…”

“I think the Senator is being very reasonable. I think these are the minimum kinds of things we ought to do, as I said, to be stewards of the taxpayers' money, protect our veterans, and protect other students. One of the tricks in the trade, as they say--I bet if I asked most Senators to describe a semester, what is a semester, you would think a semester goes usually from September to January, one semester; and maybe January to May is another semester; and then there is summer school. That is not it. A semester is what you make it. Some of these schools have a semester that is 5 weeks long. So if you can keep your students in for 60 percent of the semester, you keep all their money. Then they drop out, and you have the money. This is something else we have to look at, a better definition of what the timeframes are. What do we mean by a semester? How much time is that? How much time does a student have to stay there before the school can keep the grants and keep the loans from the student? But, again, these are things I think our committee and others are going to have to wrestle with, as we go ahead on this issue.”