Floor Statement on Student Loan Rates

Floor Statement on Student Loan Rates

Mr./Madame Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 5, the College Student Relief Act.

Last week this body passed important legislation to improve homeland security, further scientific research, and expand economic opportunity for Americans nationwide. This body did the crucial work the American people asked it to do.

Today it is my great honor to speak in support of a bill that will continue this work by cutting interest rates in half for college students with subsidized federal loans.

This legislation will benefit 5.5 million student borrowers every year. These are students that come from predominantly low- and middle-class families; hardworking Americans who might not have otherwise been able to attend our public institutions, which have witnessed a full 41 percent tuition increase since 2001.

In fact, at Minnesota State University Mankato in my district, 5,941 students took out subsidized student loans during the 2004-5 academic year. After we cut the interest rate in half with this bill, the average MNSU student would save $3,990 over the life of his or her loan.

This is crucial legislation for millions of Americans, Mr./Madame Speaker. I know this personally. At 17, I enlisted in the Army National Guard both because I wanted to serve our country and because my father's unsuccessful battle with cancer had exhausted our family's financial resources. At an incredibly difficult time in my life, the government helped me to pull myself up by the bootstraps, work my way through college, and become a public high school teacher and now a member of the United States House of Representatives. With the help of this government in Washington, I was able to achieve what I set out to do with my life.

However, I spoke often during my campaign about this generation of young people; a generation that believes for the first time in American history that the American Dream is out of reach. A generation that has never seen the kind of investment in their future that my generation saw; a generation that believes their government in Washington is out of touch with average Americans and especially with the needs of our youngest Americans.

The good people of Minnesota's 1st Congressional District sent me here to do my part in changing the priorities of this government. They sent me here to look out for this next generation of Americans who want to attend college and become hard working members of their communities.

And so Mr./Madame Speaker, with this legislation we have the capacity to make the American Dream just a little more attainable for 5.5 million American college students every year. These are students I taught in the classroom, coached on the football field, and trained in my National Guard unit. These students are my priority, and with the passage of this bill, they will once again know that they are the priority of their government in Washington.

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