Providing For Consideration Of H.R. 2669, College Cost Reduction Act Of 2007

Floor Speech

PROVIDING FOR CONSIDERATION OF H.R. 2669, COLLEGE COST REDUCTION ACT OF 2007 -- (House of Representatives - July 11, 2007)

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Mr. McGOVERN. I thank my colleague from Ohio for yielding me the time.

Mr. Speaker, my home State of Massachusetts is famous for the quality of its colleges and universities. In the Third Congressional District alone, which I represent, there are 15 colleges and universities. Some of these schools specialize in the fields of medicine, nursing, pharmacy, and health sciences. Others are community and other 2-year colleges that provide education and training for students to earn associate degrees, transfer to 4-year institutions, or upgrade their skills and experience in order to become more productive in their chosen careers.

We are privileged to have such internationally recognized colleges as Clark University, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, and Holy Cross College in my district. I have many public and private institutions, such as Worcester State College and Assumption College, which provide students with a well-rounded advanced education.

These schools attract a great diversity of students to central Massachusetts each year, over 30,000 in the Worcester area alone. H.R. 2669, the College Cost Reduction Act, will help these students realize the dream of a college education without mortgaging their futures in the process.

Mr. Speaker, this bill overhauls the student aid system and provides debt relief in order to make college more affordable for students and their parents. As others have noted, it is the single largest investment in higher education since the GI Bill. And it provides these new benefits at no new cost to the taxpayer, reducing excess subsidies that have been paid by the Federal Government to lenders in the student loan industry.

But this bill also supports and protects the 90 percent of student loan lenders that are nonprofit lenders or smaller community-based lenders. H.R. 2669 recognizes their unique mission, putting all their profits back into students and into our communities.

The College Cost Reduction Act provides a fee reduction for these lenders, making them better able to compete with large national lenders and serve students and their families. The small lenders that make up the Massachusetts Educational Financing Authority, for example, provide students and families with straightforward information and advice on how to apply for and choose a college financing plan. Along with free financial aid seminars and advice, they also provide low-cost loan programs for parents and students. H.R. 2669 will allow these types of lenders to better serve the students and families of central Massachusetts by making their loans even more affordable.

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank Chairman Miller and the members of the Education and Workforce Committee for bringing us a bill that provides such substantial increases for the Pell Grant program, initiatives to help control colleges costs, increased funding for Perkins loans, greater support for the critical Upward Bound program, and restructuring the way in which students repay their loans. If we look at the Pell Grant alone, over 87,000 Massachusetts students will benefit over the next 5 years from an estimated $357 million in additional Pell Grant funding.

Mr. Speaker, the challenge of affordable education affects not just the poor, but the middle class as well. Parents and students alike have been frustrated by the lack of action by the previous congressional leadership. I love when I hear my colleague from Washington say we all share the goal of helping struggling students be able to afford a college education. Well, students don't need our sympathy. They don't want us to feel their pain. They want us to do something. And for years they haven't done anything. Well, today we are going to do something.

Times have changed. And today we will pass a bill that will make higher education a reality for countless students and contribute greatly to a brighter economic future. We will not be able to compete in a global economy unless we have a well-educated workforce, and we need to invest in our students, and this bill does it.

I urge bipartisan support for the bill.

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