Claire McCaskill

I like to remind our teachers in Missouri that we are not high on the scale when it comes to salaries, but when I was an auditor, we were number one in the country in terms of pension benefits.

The horror stories I am hearing, I can guarantee you they are violating the laws of consumer protection.

I am hearing horror stories, I mean just unbelievable horror stories.

This is an IP address.

One of the biggest enemies of oversight is a whole lot of cooks in the kitchen that have a piece of it.

These two guys should go to jail, like, immediately. Do not pass go.

I want to commend the work of our State Treasurer Clint Zweifel, who joined Republicans in the Missouri General Assembly to push for this legislation last year.

The Federal Government has such a small role in the policies and the financing of higher education

I am a conservative on this topic because I believe that preponderance of the evidence is completely appropriate when the only punishment they can possibly get is leaving the campus.

I am also pleased to say that, thus far, our State has not had any reports of pension advance companies coming to Missouri since the bill was signed into law.

Today's hearing presents an opportunity to look at an alarming practice that intersects both of these Committee priorities.

Or a shameful lack of acknowledgment by the universities that they have a problem.

A credit card could never get away with doing what these servicers are doing to these young people.

We need some deterrent here.

Retirement security and consumer protection are both large parts of this Committee's focus and mission.

Oh, come on. I do not believe you. You know what a 'vig' is.

Even those that do are subject to the complicated rules under the windfall elimination provision, so for these people, selling off future income is even more dangerous because they do not even have Social Security to fall back on.

Maybe we need to open some of those schools so some of my colleagues could do some math and realize the votes are not there to overcome a presidential veto.

I can't think of a good policy reason that we would give whistleblower protections to employees and not give them to contractors.

I believe it is time to think about having a clock, and if the administration has not appointed an Inspector General after 6 months at an agency that has 35 percent of the whistleblower complaints in all of the Federal Government, then Ms…

I believe in serious discipline. I worry a lot about more fear plummeted onto leaders who right now are feeling pretty fearful.

Do you believe if this bill passes and it requires the firing of someone who retaliates, that it would have the impact that we are looking for here in this very troubling area?

I have a piece of legislation that would require the firing of anyone found to be retaliating against whistleblowers.

I think you do need to be more specific than 'significant fines.'

This is a huge disaster in the making, which as I said before is totally avoidable.