Political Quotes

“Again, I really want to commend both chairmen for the wonderful work that they have done, and the ranking members, too. This is another common sense, I think a good government reform amendment to the student loan program. I think it will save money. I think it will reduce student loan defaults and help maintain student access to educational resources. This amendment is a little more complex. Currently, an institution of higher education would become ineligible for participation in the student loan program if it has three consecutive annual default rates over 25 percent. That is very good. There really has to be some accountability for the schools that cannot manage their default rates. They should be held accountable. An institution currently can regain its eligibility after 2 years if it has one default rate under 25 percent during that period. I do not think that is really enough incentive for schools to really make a commitment to default management. This amendment would offer another path for those schools to regain their eligibility. If an ineligible institution can post two default rates under 25 percent, it would then regain its eligibility regardless of the time it has been ineligible. I want emphasis put on the rates, not on the time served. We really want to bring the rates down. The CBO has scored this amendment as having a very minimal cost.”