Rob Bishop: “I stand, I guess, to oppose the reconciliation bill that doesn't reconcile much. In this particular bill, it encourages…”

“I stand, I guess, to oppose the reconciliation bill that doesn't reconcile much. In this particular bill, it encourages direct loan programs, programs that are paid for and controlled by the Federal Government, and whether intentionally or not, a tax to discourage programs like FFEL, which are public-private partnerships where the government actually provides funds, but they are not administered by the government. In a clumsy way of verbiage, by lumping not-for-profit programs, and not-for-profit program lenders in the same category as for-profit lenders, it creates an unintended consequence that does harm to college students in my State. My State has a higher education authority program. It's a not-for-profit program administered by the State that provides students who have loans under this program with deductions. It's 1 rac{1}{4} percent automatic deduction if you have an automatic payment program. It's a 2 percent deduction on the rate after 48 consecutive payments have been on time, which means for a kid on this program on a standard $15,000 Stafford loan, he could actually save $2,000 over the cost of that loan and over what would happen in a direct pay program. Perhaps I am a little bit sensitive to this because I still have four kids in college, and I know what the expense of college actually means.”