John Kline: “I thank the gentleman. Reclaiming my time, I will pick up on that note because we could not have done this without the…”

“I thank the gentleman. Reclaiming my time, I will pick up on that note because we could not have done this without the hard work of some really instrumental people. Certainly, I'd like to take a moment to recognize and thank the committee staff, as my colleague has done, for their hard work on this important issue, both sides of the aisle. First, I would like to thank the majority staff director, Juliane Sullivan; our education policy director, James Bergeron; and professional staff member Brian Melnyk; and of course Amy Jones, sitting next to me here today, who started working to solve this problem more than a year ago. That's the frustrating thing here, Mr. Speaker. This problem didn't arise in April or May. We've known for more than a year, with certainty, that we had to address this issue. So I thank Amy for her passion in all higher education work. I know she's just resting up so that we can start into reauthorization of the Higher Education Act as we go forward. Certainly I'd like to thank Virginia Foxx, the chairman of the Subcommittee on Higher Education and Workforce Training, who helped craft the Smarter Solutions for Students Act. Again, I would remind my colleagues, this was a bipartisan bill. It came out of the committee bipartisan, came off the floor with a bipartisan vote, and Ms. Foxx deserves a lot of credit for her hard work. In closing, I remind my colleagues, the legislation before us today is a victory for students, families, and taxpayers.…”