Don Nickles: “I think it is good. I think it is good. My colleague from New Hampshire is not in the Chamber yet, but hopefully he will…”

“I think it is good. I think it is good. My colleague from New Hampshire is not in the Chamber yet, but hopefully he will be here. I will make a couple of comments. One, we have assumed in the budget a significant increase for Pell grants already. This is another one of these things that no matter what we put in, there is going to be an amendment to increase it. I understand that. I recognize that. The history is this Congress, and frankly in the last few years since Senator Gregg has been chairman and Arlen Specter has been chairman and George Bush has been President, the amount for Pell grants has risen and risen dramatically, from about six point some billion dollars under President Clinton's last year to all the way now up to $12.5 billion. So there have been dramatic increases in Pell grants. In the year 2001, it was $8.7 billion. In our budget it is right at $13 billion. That is a significant increase. If this amendment was adopted, Pell grants would increase from 2004 to 2005 by 48.2 percent.”