Mike Enzi: “as Senator Gregg and I have both explained, this amendment is very problematic. It has not been to a committee. It has…”

“as Senator Gregg and I have both explained, this amendment is very problematic. It has not been to a committee. It has not been heard. There has been no vote on it. It creates another loan program. It creates a different loan program than any we have ever done because this says the Secretary of Education will set the loan rate and the requirements on it. We have never had that kind of a situation. Most problematic, the system of education in this country is successful because it is a partnership between the private and public sectors. This one moves it all to private. It off-balances the direct loan versus the private loan market. We should not be supporting this amendment. The Secretary is not in a position to make the kind of decisions this calls for. We do have to have a private market. This would eliminate it. We also have a previous example of where this kind of loan was used back in the 1970s, but that was because the interest rates were about 21 percent in the regular market, and the Secretary set it at--well, it wasn't the Secretary, but the loan rate wound up being set at 9 percent. People borrowed it for everything except education. I ask Members to defeat the amendment.”