Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I rise today to introduce the Transform Student Debt to Home Equity Act. Today, 40 million Americans have Federal student loan debt totaling $1.3 trillion. Additionally, at the end of 2016, 17.2 million habitable homes sat vacant in our country. These two trends are intertwined. Student debt is prohibiting millions and millions from buying their first home. We must find a solution, or thousands more will be saddled with sunk debt depriving them of building wealth through building home equity. The Transform Student Debt to Home Equity Act offers us a road forward. This bill allows the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Federal Housing Finance Agency to start a pilot program that connects creditworthy Federal student debt holders with habitable homes for sale from the Federal ledger. By recalculating financing terms and interest rates, some student debtors can transition their debt into homeownership. Eventually creditworthy participants would pay off debt and help strengthen neighborhoods simply by maintaining their home mortgage. We must use our power and resources to transform debt to equity. Transforming a student debt to home ownership is a pathway forward for the aspiring generation. I encourage my colleagues to support our measure, and let us unleash the stranglehold of debt on the next generation and allow them to build wealth through homeownership. ____________________”