Political Quotes

“I rise to urge my colleagues to support the Burr-King amendment No. 622, which creates a deficit-neutral reserve fund to reduce overlapping student loan repayment programs. The student repayment system is a mess right now. There are nine different alternatives and they are very confusing. Even the names are confusing. There is the income-based repayment, the income-contingent repayment, the income-sensitive repayment, and the pay-as-you-earn repayment. In other words, it is very complicated and it is one of the things that makes it confusing and hard for students. Senator Burr and I have introduced this amendment in order to simplify this decision. Basically we have taken suggestions from individuals--students, institutions, as well as the President--to simplify the loan repayment provision to reduce it to basically two options, a fixed repayment over 10 years or an income-related repayment over a longer period of time. I urge my colleagues to vote for this amendment. I believe it is an overdue simplification of this process, and I believe it will enable the students of America to deal with this issue in a more constructive way. I thank the Presiding Officer. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Vermont.”