Military Construction, The Department of Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2016

Floor Speech

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Mr. President, I come today to the floor first to thank the Senator from Tennessee for taking my call last night as we discussed his objection to extending this, which, from my standpoint, for the many reasons my college from Wisconsin stated, I think is a reasonable proposal to extend the Perkins Loan Program for a 1-year time period. But I certainly understand some of the concerns my colleague from Tennessee has with this particular loan program--and, quite honestly, all the loan programs--often in terms of the affordability of college loans.

But as the Senator from Tennessee stated, we share the same goal here. Everyone in this body really does want every American to have the opportunity to get a good education, to get the tools so they can lead a productive life and build a good life for themselves and their families. That is a goal we all share, and we understand the importance of education and the affordability of it--making it accessible to every American. But that is the point I want to make here.

We held a pretty interesting hearing in our Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, and we really took a look at these student loan programs and the potential effect on the affordability of college. In testimony today, we certainly found out that the student loan program has exploded over the last 20 years, from a level of about $100 billion in 1994 to now $1.3 trillion. On average, students graduating with a 4-year degree are about $29,000 in debt. That is a concern. One of the reasons we are concerned about affordability is that the cost of college--again, in testimony--has increased somewhere between 2.5 and 2.8 times the rate of inflation over the last few number of decades. I think it is a legitimate question to ask: Why? What is so different about what colleges and universities spend their money on that the cost would increase 2.5 to 2.8 times the rate of inflation?

We had some explanation provided to our committee today, and it does involve Federal Government involvement, for example, in the accreditation process. We had one witness state that the supply of colleges since the mid-1970s has increased about 14 percent, and yet, because we want to have more access for college, the demand for college education has increased 111 percent. Part of the problem, in terms of the increasing cost of college, is the fact that we are creating barriers to entry through the accreditation process. So I think we have to take a very serious look at that.

Another thing that was quite troubling during our hearing is that there have been a number of studies, including one from the Federal Reserve Bank in New York, one from Northeastern University, that show that 40 to 50 percent of recent college graduates are either unemployed or underemployed, which means they are getting these college degrees and are not being able to put them to good use. That is something we should really be taking a look at.

Again, I think it was a reasonable proposal to extend the Perkins Loan Program for another year for many of the reasons my colleague from Wisconsin stated. A lot of people are counting on these. But I fully respect what the Senator from Tennessee is trying to do--to consolidate these programs, to make them more streamlined, to address the affordability issue--which really is something that we are really ignoring far too often in this body as we take the Federal Government and we involve it more and more in higher education. We really have to take a serious look at what the Federal Government's involvement has actually been in terms of the unintended consequence of making college less accessible because we have made it so much more unaffordable.

Again, I thank the Senator from Tennessee for taking my phone call and listening to my viewpoint. And I certainly appreciate his dedication to trying to achieve that same goal that we all share--providing the accessibility for every American to have a good quality education so they can build a good life for themselves and their family.

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