Virginia Foxx: “I thank the chairman for yielding time. I rise in support of the Smarter Solutions for Students Act, renamed as the…”

“I thank the chairman for yielding time. I rise in support of the Smarter Solutions for Students Act, renamed as the Bipartisan Student Loan Certainty Act by the Senate. It's about time that bipartisanship on this issue won the day in Washington. Earlier this year, my colleagues and I warmly welcomed the President's ideas to settle how student loan interest rates are calculated. Referencing his plan and his premise that student loan interest rates should be permanently free of politics and set using market interest rates, we introduced, and a bipartisan House majority passed, the Smarter Solutions for Students Act in May, well before rates were scheduled to double on July 1. Our friends in the Senate were on a much different schedule. Rather than immediately building on the striking similarities between President Obama's initial proposal and the House Republican solution, Senate Democrats chose infighting over completing this important work. July 1 came and went without any agreement from the Senate. Rates doubled. But advocates of common sense and bipartisanship made a better case. Last week, Senate Democrats finally chose to support a permanent, market-based solution much like what the President had originally requested and practically identical to our Smarter Solutions for Students Act. Campaign promises and political posturing should not play a role in the calculation of student loan interest rates.…”