Timothy H. Bishop: “It is imperative that we go to conference on this bill and that we pass the College Cost Reduction Act. It provides us…”

“It is imperative that we go to conference on this bill and that we pass the College Cost Reduction Act. It provides us with an unprecedented opportunity to help students afford college and to do so at no new cost to the taxpayer. Let me emphasize that point: At no new cost to the taxpayer. We just heard this bill described, I believe, as containing unprecedented new spending, and I think it is important to point out that it is not new spending, it is redirected spending. With this bill, the Congress is making a choice that we think it is important to take Federal resources, scarce Federal resources, and devote them to assisting needy students in meeting the cost of attending college, and it is more important to do that than it is to see to it that the student loan providers maintain what are already very healthy profit margins. I think that is a choice that the American people would support us in making, and it is certainly a reasonable choice.”