Mike Enzi: “I do rise to speak in support of the conference report under consideration today. I thank the Senator from Massachusetts…”

“I do rise to speak in support of the conference report under consideration today. I thank the Senator from Massachusetts and his staff for their participation and the way they kept us informed during the conference. I have to say 'kept informed' because we were not at the conference, except for the one kind of superficial meeting we had where we got to make speeches, but they did a good job of keeping us informed. This seems to be the way that reconciliation happens. I know when the Republicans were in the majority that is the way it happened, so I am not surprised that when the Democrats are in the majority that is the way it happened. But it was very helpful to be kept informed on what was happening. There are quite a few things that the reconciliation bill does, but I have to mention that without the reauthorization package it is very incomplete. We are urging the House to hurry and do the reauthorization part so that we truly have a higher education package. Without that, there are a lot of things that are left out, and I will go into that a little bit this morning in more detail following the vote. This isn't the first time we have reduced the subsidies to lenders and provided greater benefits to students.”