Political Quotes

“let me begin by just putting this issue in a bit of a historical perspective. Looking at this chart, it reflects the Pell grant maximum awards over the past 10 years. And you can see, 10 years ago, in 1986 the maximum Pell award was $2,100. This year it is $4,100. The yellow reflects the period of time that the Democrats were in control of Congress, the red reflects the time when Republicans took over Congress. And you can see the relative spikes in the Pell grant funding. It was essentially flatlined for about 10 years before Republicans took over. Now, when I got here to Congress, elected in 2000, we were spending $7.6 billion a year in Pell grants. The maximum award was $3,300. This year we are spending $13.4 billion a year on Pell grants, and the maximum award is up to $4,100. That is an increase of 76 percent in overall total Pell grant funding. In addition to the $13.4 billion we have in the bill this year for Pell grants, the bill also lists a very important addition of $4.3 billion to retire the Pell grant shortfall that has accumulated in the program over the past several years because of higher-than-expected student participation. That is a grand total of $17.7 billion for Pell grants, the largest investment in Pell grants in the history of the United States.…”