Mark Pocan: “Thank you very much, Representative Ellison. Your leadership for many years in this body has been well appreciated. I…”

“Thank you very much, Representative Ellison. Your leadership for many years in this body has been well appreciated. I want to thank you for bringing back really the central theme of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. When we had a budget, it was the back-to-work budget. It's about fighting on behalf of the middle class. We saw the Republican budget in this House balance the budget on the backs of the middle class. But our budget had the back of the middle class and those aspiring to be in the middle class. And one of those fundamental equalizers is that opportunity to get a higher education, to advance in society, to change your economic outlook. I grew up in a lower middle class family. I not only had student loans, I also had Pell Grants. I was fortunate. But back when I went to college, you were still able to pay back your loans often in about a 5- year period. But more and more, it's a 10-year, 20-year payment back in order to be able to afford those rising student costs, and that is taking a bite not only out of the current economy, but out of the opportunities for those people getting those degrees so they can improve their lives and their family's lives and rise either into the middle class or to better their lives overall. So the Congressional Progressive Caucus has had this as a central focus: How can we help lift those in poverty to the middle class and help those in the middle class to have every chance at opportunity that they should have?…”