Pete Sessions: “for several years I have been looking at the question of student loans and the abuse that often exists in that process.…”

“for several years I have been looking at the question of student loans and the abuse that often exists in that process. Also, another issue that has concerned me is America's lack of physicians in numbers sufficient to meet our current demands and the demands we may have in the future. So I have an amendment today that, hopefully, the bill managers, Senators Kennedy and Enzi, might feel comfortable supporting. It deals with both of those issues, I think, in a way that takes us in a positive direction. The Association of American Medical Colleges, after the recommendation of Dr. Jordan Cohen, their president a couple years ago, recently stated it is their official policy that medical school enrollment should be increased by 30 percent. Most American medical schools are now already beginning to increase enrollment, some at about the rate of 15 percent, which can be done in most colleges without great expense. But as you get closer to a one-third increase, it actually begins to put a bite on people's programs. They have to have faculty, perhaps buildings, and other capabilities that may incur substantial costs. One of the things that has concerned me--and I am not sure most Americans are fully aware of it--is that a shortage of physicians is being filled by an increasing number of graduates from foreign medical schools. Many of these are offshore schools in the Caribbean--for-profit schools.…”