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Floor Speech
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Mr. GRASSLEY. Madam President, there has been a lot of noise about canceling student debt. That has been going on for quite a few months, but it seems to have taken on a new life here within the last week to 10 days. That whole talk is worse than closing the barn door after the horse has escaped; it is like buying a new horse but leaving the barn door open. If all student debt was gone tomorrow, we would be right back where we started when this whole new crop of students graduate.
Last month, the administration unilaterally extended all the pause on paying back student loans for all borrowers until the end of August, regardless of need. It doesn't matter that all Americans are back to work now, if they want to be back to work. It doesn't matter if the borrower is making six figures and can afford to pay off their loans.
The latest extension will bring the cost of this student loan payment pause up to about $150 billion. Just to put that $150 billion in context, the entire Department of Education budget for this year is about half of that amount at $80 billion.
Higher education advocates have been calling for the doubling of the Pell grant. That is the program that targets aid to those with the most financial need. It is a noble goal to double the Pell grant; but, of course, Congress needs to find the money somewhere to do just that.
Now, instead, the Biden administration is spending billions of dollars to allow high earners with graduate degrees to not pay their loans with no say from the Congress of the United States. And you know the President of the United States has been debating for months--maybe starting at the beginning of his term--did he really have the authority to do it. He has expressed the opinion, at least on the $50,000 figure, that he didn't figure he had the authority to do it. I question whether he has that authority at all.
If you want to help those who owe more in student loans than they can afford to pay, we need to fix the student loan program on the front end. In other words, we need to change the incentives and give colleges a reason to bring down tuition. Right now, a high school student looking at college is often in the dark about what they will end up paying to attend college and to get that degree. It is no wonder that prices rise when students don't know even what those prices are. And students are encouraged, of course, to borrow the maximum even if they don't need that maximum, because that is what the Federal law requires.
So in response to this problem about a Federal policy encouraging students to go into more debt than they need to get their degree and also about the rising tuition costs because colleges think they can raise their tuition at will because the Federal Government is going to come in and help the student, I have introduced three bipartisan bills to give students the information they need to make the choice that works best for them. My bills would make it easier for students to see how much each college would cost, what aid they are going to be getting, and what their average salary versus student loan payments would be. The answer isn't to cancel student debt only after students have gotten in well over their heads, it is to stop them from getting into that situation in the very first place. And it certainly wouldn't be done unilaterally from the White House with no say from this Congress on the $150 billion program.
Now, even worse, the benefits of just canceling or pausing student debt are mainly going to those at the top of the income range. Graduates with the most debt also tend to be those with the longest degrees and they are now doctors or lawyers. These people, doctors and lawyers, might have plenty of debt now, but people with graduate degrees are also much more likely to have a higher salary and much higher lifetime earnings.
Are the two-thirds of the Americans without college degrees somehow less deserving of a free $10,000 or $50,000 in canceled debt than doctors or lawyers? And what about those people that have already paid off their loans? Are they going to bear the costs of people that borrowed too much when this is forgiven at the $10,000 or $50,000 level?
I am sure many Iowans would be happy to have their car loans or mortgages paid off. Is there any thought about what this can lead to? It is pretty clear. Canceling debt is not a solution. Instead, I have been glad to see many of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle join my bills to prevent excess student debt in the very first place.
We need to help students by giving them the information they need to find the best college for their needs at a cost they can afford. Otherwise, forgiving student debt is a slippery slope to a lot of other interests wanting debt forgiveness.
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