On the recordOctober 21, 2015
I join my colleague from Wisconsin and other Members who are here on the floor to talk about the Perkins Loan Program. It is a really important program. It serves the needs of many of the students in our States, and it serves a unique need. It provides flexibility that other programs don't provide, and it also allows the colleges and universities to actually contribute to it. I hope we can get this 1-year extension done, and I hope that the objection will be overridden by the common sense of doing something that the House has already done. By the way, the House of Representatives did it for 1 year also at no cost to the Federal Government because there is no reason to pay for a 1-year extension of a program that is a loan program where the colleges and universities take the payments that are made--the repayments--and put them back into the program. So this program is at no cost, and it is certainly an important program that we ought to continue. I know there is discussion about broader education reform, and I support that. I know this program is not perfect. There are other ways that we could possibly improve it. I am perfectly willing to enter into that discussion and debate it. We should have that debate.…
