John Tierney: “I thank the gentleman for yielding. Mr. Speaker, I did file an amendment to this bill that would be considered today.…”

“I thank the gentleman for yielding. Mr. Speaker, I did file an amendment to this bill that would be considered today. Quite simply, what it does is provide existing student loan borrowers the opportunity to responsibly refinance their high-interest debt to a lower-interest obligation, like homeowners and car owners are able to do all the time. The amendment is based on legislation that I filed here in the House and my colleague, Elizabeth Warren, filed over in the Senate. We have over 130 cosponsors here in the House and dozens of respected educational groups and diverse organizations in support of this measure. The amendment would help students and parents save some real money. In fact, the Congressional Research Service says that a middle class undergraduate student with an average loan debt would save over $4,000 over the life of the loan and a typical graduate student would save more than $2,500 and the parent who borrowed money to help pay for their child's education would save more than $3,500. Mr. Speaker, these are real savings, real dollars, and no doubt, they are going to be directly invested back into the community. The Center for American Progress estimated that refinancing just the Federal student loans, not the parents' loans on that, would pump $21 billion back into the economy. It helps taxpayers too. The Congressional Budget Office--nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office--said that, over 10 years, it would save taxpayers $22 billion.…”