Water Resources Development Act of 2016--Motion to Proceed

Floor Speech

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Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I am going to--I believe I have an opportunity to speak on the floor now on the pending measure as in morning business, but I am going to yield as soon as the Democratic leader comes back, which I expect to be momentarily, and I would ask unanimous consent to then reclaim the floor. He has just arrived. I am going to yield to the Democratic leader for his leadership time. Recognition of the Minority Leader

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Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I listened carefully to the statement made by the Republican leader, Senator McConnell, about the Zika crisis we face. I would like to give the Members of the Senate and those who are following this debate an update of what occurred in the United States of America between the time we adjourned and now returned to this session of the U.S. Senate.

The last time I came to the floor to speak in July to talk about Zika, there were 3,667 people in the United States and U.S. territories who had Zika infections. Included in that number, 599 pregnant women. As of late last week, that number has skyrocketed. There are now 17,000 people infected with Zika in the United States and its territories. That is a fourfold increase over the 7 weeks since we left for recess. It included 1,595 pregnant women.

I say to the Republican majority: You have been warned by the President, by public health experts, and others that your failure to respond to the President's request for resources would endanger people living in the United States and its territories and especially pregnant women. Yet the Republican leadership has refused the President's efforts to provide the resources necessary to fight this deadly Zika virus.

The numbers are devastating but not surprising. It was last February--7 months ago--when the President asked Congress for $1.9 billion in emergency funding so public health experts would have the resources they needed to fight Zika. Here we are almost 7 months later--200 days later--and Congress still has refused to provide the resources necessary to protect American families from this virus. This is a disgrace. It is an outrage.

Our Federal health agencies, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, have been doing everything they can to move money around within their agencies to try to make do in this fight against Zika. They are out of options.

Last week, Dr. Frieden, Director of the CDC, said:

The cupboard is bare. Basically, we are out of money, and we need Congress to act to allow us to respond effectively.

Dr. Frieden came to see me before the recess. In my office, he said he was incredulous. He said: You mean you are going to leave without Congress responding to the President's call for emergency funding to fight Zika? And I said: Unfortunately, that is the case. And that is what happened. For 7 weeks, we have said to the public health leaders across America that the Republican-led Congress will not respond to the President's call for emergency funds. It didn't have to be this way.

In May, the Senate approved a bipartisan compromise funding bill supported by 89 Senators, including many who have come to the floor on the Republican side. It was negotiated by Senators Blunt, Murray, and others. It provided $1.1 billion in emergency funding to fight Zika, not what the President asked, which was $1.8, but $1.1 billion. Instead of voting on this bipartisan measure after it passed the Senate with 89 votes, the House Republican leadership put forth an inadequate proposal to fight Zika in the range of $622 million, about one-third of what the President asked for. Then when that bill was a nonstarter, the House Republicans decided to double down, so they drafted the special House Republican Zika funding bill. What an outrage. This bill included a litany of poison pill riders that the House Republicans knew didn't have a chance in the U.S. Senate.

They threw in a provision--listen to this--at a time when women, fearful of becoming pregnant and infected by the Zika virus, were seeking family planning advice and counseling, the House Republicans threw in a provision on the Zika funding bill to block funding for Planned Parenthood. They knew with no vaccine available to protect these women, women's health clinics like Planned Parenthood were on the frontlines of giving women who faced a pregnancy the opportunity to delay that pregnancy so they wouldn't be infected and give birth to a child with serious problems.

Did they stop there? No. The House Republicans had more. They threw in provisions to undermine the Environmental Protection Agency on key provisions of the Clean Water Act. Then they added provisions to cut Affordable Care Act funds to reduce the opportunity in Puerto Rico, which is ground zero in our territories, to fight the Zika virus. Essentially, the Republicans are putting red meat for the right wing of their party ahead of protecting the people living in America and our territories--and especially pregnant women--from this public health threat.

It is no surprise that this hyperpartisan bill coming out of the House went nowhere.

Now, Senator McConnell comes to the floor and blames the Democrats-- blames the Democrats--after the Republicans put in the provision to block funding for family planning at Planned Parenthood.

Let me be clear. Democrats were committed from the start to fund this effort that the President asked for at $1.9 billion so that we had the resources to fight this public health emergency. The Republicans decided to play politics with it.

I have been in Congress for a while, in the House and in the Senate. We have had a lot of disasters--natural disasters and others. Time and again we put party aside to respond to the real needs of the American people. That has all changed. With the arrival of the tea party and this new spiteful spirit that we see in the Congress, even a public health crisis like Zika has become a political football in this Republican-controlled Congress.

When it became clear the Republicans were not going to approve the funding level the President asked for, we agreed to a compromise of $1.1 billion. This bipartisan bill passed the Senate overwhelmingly, and all the House had to do was to approve that bill so that we could provide funding to fight Zika. They refused.

I worry that my Republican colleagues are underestimating the threat that this virus poses. Local transmission of Zika has now occurred in Florida, with more than 35 Floridians contracting the virus without having traveled overseas. And, for the first time ever--for the first time in the history of our country--the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is warning Americans that there are certain parts of the continental United States that are not safe to travel in. They are advising pregnant women to avoid neighborhoods in Miami, FL. That has never happened before. When the President warned us in February of the danger of this crisis, did any of the Republicans who opposed him think there would be parts of America that we would be advising Americans not to visit because of the danger of this public health crisis? Certainly, if they did, they would have paid closer attention to the President's request.

During the past 6 months, we have discovered new and worse information about Zika. Here is what we know. Zika can be spread through sexual transmission. We also know women with Zika in their first trimester face a 13-percent chance that their baby will be born with microcephaly. And even if pregnant women don't show any signs of infection, the baby can be born with serious physical and neurological disorders. Researchers are also examining the links to other negative health outcomes: Eye infections that can lead to blindness, autoimmune disorders that can cause paralysis. And what about the impact of maternal stress on the baby? I can't imagine the anxiety that pregnant women must feel right now, especially in Florida, and as a result of the looming crises in Texas, Louisiana, and certainly in Puerto Rico. If you call yourself a pro-life Congressman or Senator, wouldn't you want to do everything in your power to protect these babies from this elevated risk?

In July I met with maternal and fetal health medicine specialists and community health leaders in Chicago who shared with me their fear about what parents were going to go through. Illinois has now had 47 cases of Zika, but with Chicago being a major transportation hub, hundreds more of pregnant women have sought care and advice from providers and have undergone tests to make sure their babies are safe.

I am tired of the partisan games being played with the health of pregnant women and babies but, to date, that is exactly what has happened with this partisan response to the Zika crisis. It is time for this to stop.

I am heartened that some House Republicans--only a few--have had the courage to step up and say what is obvious. Florida Republican Representative Ted Yoho recently said: ``Take everything out except Zika funding and don't put any riders in it'' when he was asked how we should respond to the Zika crisis. He basically said to Speaker Ryan and the House Republicans: You have to reverse course and take the politics out of the Zika public health crisis.

Well, I hope the Republican leadership is listening. Let's not wait for another 17,000 infected by Zika. It is time for the Republicans to stop playing these political games, to come back and approve the measure that passed with 89 votes in the Senate. For-Profit Colleges and Universities

Mr. President, I have come to this floor for many years now to alert the American people to a looming crisis. It is a crisis involving for- profit colleges and universities. Many people were not even aware that there was a difference between public and private universities in the for-profit sector, but there is a big difference. I have said it repeatedly and sadly it is still the case.

There are three numbers that tell the story about for-profit colleges and universities. Ten. Ten percent of students enrolled in post- secondary education go to these for-profit schools--schools like the University of Phoenix and DeVry and Rasmussen and Kaplan--10 percent of the students. Twenty. Twenty percent of all of the Federal aid to education goes to these for-profit schools. Why so much? Because they charge so much in tuition. But the big number is 40. Forty percent of all student loan defaults are students who attended for-profit colleges and universities. Ten percent of the students, 40 percent of the defaults. Why? For several reasons.

First, these for-profit colleges and universities are recruiting young people who are not ready for college. They don't care. Sign them up. Sign them up so that these for-profit schools can walk away with their Pell grants, can lure them into student loans that send thousands of dollars for each student back into these for-profit schools. Many of the students finally wake up to the reality that they are not ready for college or that the debt they are accumulating is too high, and they make a terrible choice but an inevitable one--they drop out. So they sit there with a debt and nothing to show for it but wasted time. Or, they stick with the program. For-profit schools take them to ``graduation'' and then they find out the reality that the diploma from for-profit colleges and universities in many cases is worthless, despite all the debt and all the time wasted.

Yesterday, one of the worst actors in the for-profit sector, ITT Tech, announced it was closing after years of exploiting students and fleecing taxpayers. In the post mortem, many are focused on the Department of Education's decision a couple of weeks ago to prohibit ITT Tech from enrolling any new students using Federal student loans, in addition to other restrictions. But the root of the ITT Tech demise stretches back much further than that. This is a company that literally rotted from the inside.

The story of ITT Tech, like that of Corinthian, another failed for- profit college, is really the story of the for-profit college industry--for-profit education companies consumed by greed, fed by students who are understandably trying to make a better life for themselves, and enabled for too long by poor Federal oversight and congressional inaction. Like Corinthian before it and many for-profit colleges still today, ITT Tech charges students too much in tuition, provides them too little in the form of meaningful education, and leaves them with crushing debt.

In my hometown of Springfield, IL, we have a mall called White Oaks Mall. Every time I would drive out there and take a look at the huge ITT Tech sign on the side of that mall, I would think to myself, I know what is going to happen here. This school is going to lure in hundreds of unsuspecting students from this area, saddle them with debt, and give them worthless diplomas, and probably ITT Tech one day would go out of business. It happened. In my hometown, an ITT Tech student seeking an associate's degree in information technology, computer and electronics engineering technology, computer drafting and design, and parallel studies could sign up with ITT Tech and expect the 2-year program to cost them $47,000--$47,000 for 2 years at ITT Tech in Springfield, IL, for an associate's degree. If they went a few miles away to Lincoln Land Community College, they could get an associate's degree in fields like information technology, computers and electronics for $3,000, so $47,000 at ITT Tech and $3,000 at Lincoln Land Community College a few miles away. And here is something to think about: At Lincoln Land, only 1 in 50 students ends up being unable to pay back their Federal student loans--1 in 50. At ITT Tech: One in five. Students are 10 times more likely to default on their student loans if they went to ITT Tech instead of Lincoln Land Community College for the same degree. Why? The difference in tuition: $47,000 in debt at ITT, $3,000 in debt at Lincoln Land.

According to one recent Brookings study, ITT Tech students cumulatively--cumulatively, these students owe more than $4.6 billion in Federal student loans, and now ITT Tech is going out of business.

How much is being paid back on that accumulated debt to ITT Tech, this for-profit college? According to the same Brookings study, minus 1 percent of the balance has been repaid in 2014. How is that possible? How can it be a negative number? Because the interest on the cumulative debt is accruing faster than the payments being made by students nationwide. These students are being fleeced--fleeced by a fly-by- night, for-profit college that should have been closed long ago.

Individual students often have no chance of paying back their debt. They have taken on huge debt for a worthless diploma from ITT Tech.

In 2009, ITT Tech's 5-year cohort default rate on student loans was 51 percent. More than half their students defaulted.

Marcus Willis from Illinois understands it. He was recruited by ITT Tech with two or three phone calls a day until he finally signed up. He relented from the pressure and signed up for classes. Marcus graduated in 2003 from ITT Tech and spent months looking for a job. Of the student debt he incurred, he says: ``It's too much to even keep track of; I will never be able to pay it back.'' He says he wouldn't wish ITT Tech on his worst enemy.

ITT Tech and many of these for-profit colleges are approved by our Federal Government to issue Pell grants and student loans. Is it any wonder that students like Marcus Willis think they are legitimate schools and they turn out to be nothing but fleecing operations by these people who are raking in millions of dollars?

Like Corinthian before it and many more for-profit colleges still today, ITT Tech has engaged in unfair, deceptive, and abusive practices to lure students into their programs--false promises, high-pressure tactics, flashy advertisements.

Yesterday, when it announced it was going to close, ITT was under investigation by--listen--18 State attorneys general. It is being sued by Massachusetts and New Mexico at this moment. The New Mexico attorney general found ITT placed students into loans without their knowledge, falsely stated the number of credits a student needed to take in order to push them even deeper into debt, failed to issue refunds in tuition and fees in compliance with Federal law, and many other deceitful practices.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is suing ITT Tech for predatory lending. This was a for-profit college with the blessing of the Department of Education. There are many more, sadly, just like it.

Despite what happens to students and their families, the executives who worked at ITT Tech are not going to suffer in this closure. Kevin Modany and Daniel Fitzpatrick were two ITT execs. Modany received $515,048 and Fitzpatrick received $112,348 in big bonus checks as recently as January. In 2014, Modany was paid more than $3 million in total compensation. I think that is more than any college president in America. This man was paid that amount of money by ITT Tech because students came in and signed up for their worthless courses. These are the same two individuals the SEC say violated numerous securities laws in their fraudulent private student loan scheme at ITT Tech.

Accreditation for ITT Tech? The for-profit industry takes care of that. They accredit their own schools. It is time for us and the Department of Education to stop playing ball with that.

Yet for all of this, in its swan song, ITT Tech is engaging in a pity campaign for itself--blaming everyone but its own greedy executives and shady practices for its collapse.

True to form, the Wall Street Journal calls the collapse of ITT Tech an ``execution'' carried out by the Obama administration. The words ``for-profit'' as used in the term ``for-profit colleges and universities'' are such a siren song for the Wall Street Journal that they don't even have the good sense to recognize crony capitalism when it comes to the for-profit colleges and universities. These colleges and universities are the most heavily federally subsidized businesses in America today.

ITT Tech's irresponsible actions now leave tens of thousands of students across the country wondering what is next.

Many who recently attended ITT Tech will be eligible for closed school discharges, but must weigh their options carefully.

If students use ITT Tech credits to transfer to a similar program of study, they may not be eligible for a closed school discharge.

Those who decide to transfer should look at community colleges or other not-for-profit options. I have asked Illinois community college presidents to assist ITT Tech students to continue their educations. I urge my colleagues to do the same in their States.

The last thing we want is these students to fall into the open arms of other for-profit colleges facing State and Federal investigations or lawsuits.

In addition, there are countless ITT Tech students who likely qualify for Federal student loan relief under a defense to repayment given the voluminous evidence of ITT Tech's unfair, deceptive, and abusive practices.

The Department of Education should work with State attorneys general and other Federal agencies who have evidence of this wrongdoing to ensure ITT Tech students who were defrauded receive the relief to which they are entitled under the law.

Of course, all of this will cost taxpayers dearly. The Department estimates that the outer limit of potential closed school discharges could be around $500 million. Potential defense to repayment claims pushes the price tag higher.

In addition to the $90 million the Department currently holds from ITT Tech, the Department should seek the full $247 million it required ITT Tech to post in August and explore other ways to ensure that ITT Tech and its executives pay for as much of the relief as possible.

But the high cost can't mean being stingy with relief to students. As I said with Corinthian, we can't leave them holding the bag.

We also can't continue to rely on a policy of oversight that only protects students on the back end, after a major collapse.

We have to reform our accreditation system so that there is meaningful accountability with respect to student outcomes on the front end. I will be introducing legislation with several of my colleagues in the coming weeks to do just that.

We need earlier and more aggressive enforcement from the Department of Education, including expanded use of letters of credit to ensure taxpayers are protected. I am pleased that the Department has created an enforcement unit to identify and respond to wrongdoing early and is working through the Borrower Defense Rule to establish triggers that will require a school to post a letter of credit.

We also must ensure that students can hold schools directly accountable in court by banning the use of mandatory arbitration. I am hopeful that the coming Borrower Defense Rule will also include a strong ban on this practice which hides wrongdoing and leaves taxpayers as the only option for relief when students are wronged by schools.

I am going to close by saying that there is more work to be done. This is not the last shoe to drop. Corinthian left so many thousands of students with worthless diplomas and, sadly, worthless student debt. They didn't earn anything for it. The same thing is happening at ITT Tech.

Who are the losers? The students, their families, and the taxpayers are. When these students can't pay back their loans, the taxpayers of America lose. This ITT Tech could be a billion-dollar baby when it comes to penalties for America's taxpayers. When will this Senate and this Congress wake up to the reality of the disgrace of the for-profit college and university industry?

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