Timothy Roemer: “I rise to support the intent of the legislation, not particularly the accomplishment of the legislation. Certainly, the…”

“I rise to support the intent of the legislation, not particularly the accomplishment of the legislation. Certainly, the "whereas" clauses in this Pell Grant concurrent resolution are very, very strong and language that I agree with, particularly the fact that in the language we talk about being concerned that the impact and the help of the Pell Grant has been sliced in half from the 1970s. We have gone from providing through a Pell Grant about 76 percent of the cost of education; in the 1990s now, the impact of the Pell grant is about 36 percent of the cost of a 4-year public college. That is slashing in half the impact and the help of the Pell Grant, and we need to do something about that. ... But what we need to do, Mr. Speaker, as we show our concern about the declining impact and help of the Pell Grant, is to come up with a piece of legislation, a bill that funds it. This is a concurrent resolution. It is not signed by the President.”