John Tierney: “Woman, this bipartisan amendment is offered with Mr. Gowdy of South Carolina. It provides very clearly $10 million for…”

“Woman, this bipartisan amendment is offered with Mr. Gowdy of South Carolina. It provides very clearly $10 million for the John R. Justice Student Loan Repayment Program. It is unfortunate that we know many law school student graduates accept jobs as prosecutors and as public defenders, but they don't stay on the jobs very long because the compensation is at such a low level, and their debt burdens from college and from law school are so high that they end up leaving and going on to more lucrative pastures because the private firms, obviously, have more resources with which to recruit and retain than do public defenders and district attorneys' offices around the country. Oftentimes, the students tell me they would like to stay in these offices. Obviously, the district attorneys tell us on a regular basis that they have such a difficult time training people and getting them to stay so that they can do a good job. Both public defenders and district attorneys, people on both sides of any particular case, understand the importance of that judicial system work in that it's fair and in that everybody has the level of representation that makes our system work and be respected around the world on that. This would allow the tool of loan forgiveness for those district attorneys on that and those public defenders so that they can get people to stay at least 3 years so that the training doesn't just get turned around and go to waste.…”