Mark Pocan: “Thank you, Representative Jeffries, for your leadership on this issue and for your bill, which I am very proud to be a…”

“Thank you, Representative Jeffries, for your leadership on this issue and for your bill, which I am very proud to be a cosponsor of. I think that it's fair to say that college students and aspiring college students, not just in New York but across the country, owe you a good kind of debt for the work that you're doing. Thank you so much for continuing to expose what we need to expose, which is that the bill before this body tomorrow will cost $10,000 in interest more than it has to. It is worse than if we simply did nothing and let the loans double on July 1. We need to act. We have bills, like Representative Jeffries' bill, with which to do that. I would like to share one story from One Wisconsin Now, and then I'd like to introduce another colleague of mine. Onewisconsinnow.org has collected these stories, and this is a story from a woman named Alexandra who is in my district. Let me read what she says: I am 27, and my student loans forbid me from living in a safe neighborhood. I have to live where there is cheap housing, and must live with a roommate. I can't afford a car payment, and don't have one. I live paycheck to paycheck, and virtually save no money. I have a great job, one that I worked very hard to get, and three-quarters of my entire paycheck go towards my student loan payments. I live every day worrying that, someday, my student loans are going to get the best of me financially. I am very close to defaulting on my loans.…”