On the recordMay 9, 2012
I join my colleague, the chairman. I appreciate the offering of the amendment; however, I'm opposed to the offset. We have a need to have loan forgiveness for public servants, both in terms of law enforcement and prosecutors, but teachers, police officers--you can go through a whole range. In fact, embodied in the reconciliation act that carried the Affordable Health Care Act, we created a loan-forgiveness program for public service that will start to take effect in 2014. This is needed, but we can't use this offset. And I would hope that we'll have an opportunity to work together on this because I do think if we had $4 million last year, we can continue to find additional resources as we go to conference. We are hamstrung by a lower allocation, which means some of the things that Members may be interested in are going to have a lower funding level as this bill leaves the House but a higher funding level when it leaves conference. So it's part of the process, and I appreciate the amendment. I hope that the gentleman would consider working with me and the chairman as we go forward, if your desire is to actually find resources for this important endeavor.
