Higher Edcuation Amendments of 2007

Floor Speech

HIGHER EDUCATION AMENDMENTS OF 2007 -- (Senate - July 23, 2007)

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Ms. MURKOWSKI. Mr. President, we know a college degree and a highly skilled labor force are the keys to increasing earnings and to Americans' competitiveness around the world.

When the Senate HELP Committee began work on the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act, my main priority at the time was to ensure that more students could access and afford college and job training.

Taken as a package, S. 1762--the Higher Education Access Act that we passed early Friday morning--and S. 1642--the Higher Education Amendments Act--that we are debating today--truly accomplish these goals and more.

Early Friday morning, the Senate increased the maximum Pell grant award to assist low-income students to go to college or to get job training. Then we added additional funding for the neediest of low-income students.

I am also very proud that we authorized and appropriated $226 million for the College Access Partnership Grant Program. This is a partnership between the Federal Government and the States to help more young Americans prepare for, apply to, and succeed in college.

We also did good work in the bill in protecting borrower benefits that are provided by State agency and nonprofit lenders.

In Alaska, we have a State agency lender that uses their special allowance payments, or their SAP payments, to reduce the loan interest rates to the lowest in the Nation. They provide outreach and college early awareness to middle and high school students. They provide need-based grants and other very important benefits.

Alaska's State agency, nonprofit lender, and others like it in States such as Wyoming, Tennessee, and North Carolina, are not plowing their SAP rate into their profit margin. I am gratified the Senate was able to recognize the good work the State of Alaska and many other States are doing.

Also in the legislation, we ensured that young Americans will not be saddled with unmanageable amounts of debt after they graduate.

It is these and other provisions in S. 1762 that go hand in hand with the bill we are debating today, and which I am hopeful we will see passage of by tonight.

This bill, S. 1642--the Higher Education Amendments of 2007--includes many important and beneficial provisions that will ensure that students, parents, and American taxpayers get the fairest deal, the best information, and truly the biggest bang for their buck.

This legislation makes the cost of college more transparent so parents and students can compare the costs of different colleges to determine which ones will most effectively and affordably meet their needs.

It places prohibitions on unauthorized entities using students' loan and grant information for marketing purposes. It provides fair, sensible, and rigorous ethics reform for financial aid administrators and lenders to ensure that the students receive the information they need to make decisions that will benefit them and not benefit unscrupulous lenders or postsecondary institutions.

Title II of the bill streamlines and strengthens Teacher Quality Enhancement grants to bring more accountability to university teacher training programs. It also directs the Secretary to further simplify the FAFSA the Free Application for Federal Student Aid. When we were talking on the floor last week about the FAFSA application, the Senator from Wyoming held up that eight-page application and demonstrated what it is the students are faced with when they take this on.

I am particularly proud of one provision that I worked to include in S. 1642. This provision makes it easier for servicemembers--particularly those in the lowest ranks--and their spouses to afford college.

I was in my State at Fort Richardson last winter, and I was visiting with some of the wives of the servicemen deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan. I asked them in this townhall meeting: What is it that I can do to help you as you wait for your loved one to return home? How can we make your lives better? We talked about quality-of-life initiatives. We talked about greater certainty with deployments. But one of the wives told me that during this time when her husband was deployed for 15 months, she was trying to take advantage of this time period to better herself by going on to college. She told me that one of the things keeping her from being able to afford to go to college was that the money the military pays to help offset a portion of their housing costs, which is counted toward their income, this allowance prevented her from being eligible for a Pell grant. Now, given the low rate of pay for many members of the military, particularly those in the lowest ranks, this is also a barrier for them in being able to take out student loans.

I soon found out from the National Military Families Association that many military spouses are in this same position. So when I came back to the Capitol, I worked to include language in S. 1642 that would exclude the cost of the basic allowance for housing for servicemembers living off base, as well as the value of on-base housing, from being included in calculations for financial need.

Excluding the basic allowance for housing--which, in the vast majority of cases, does not completely cover military families' housing costs--and the value of on-base housing will benefit the least well-paid members of our military and their spouses. These are privates, they are seamen's apprentices, lance corporals, airmen, and corporals whose base pay is less than $35,000 a year. As those who are deployed and serving our country, we can help the spouses who perhaps are here and looking to better themselves during this period of time as they wait for their loved ones to return home. This is a true benefit for them.

I could not be more proud to know that this strong woman whom I met last year and potentially thousands like her will have a better chance now of being able to attend college should we be successful in passing this legislation.

Overall, I believe we did a fine job in making college and job training more accessible and more affordable. I would like to thank my colleagues, especially Senator Kennedy and Senator Enzi, for their generosity and their graciousness throughout this long process and their true dedication toward the goal of educating all of America's young people.

I yield the floor.

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