Conference Report On H.R. 2669, College Cost Reduction and Access Act

Floor Speech

CONFERENCE REPORT ON H.R. 2669, COLLEGE COST REDUCTION AND ACCESS ACT -- (House of Representatives - September 07, 2007)

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Mr. SMITH of Nebraska. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to urge my colleagues to vote against H.R. 2669, a bill which does not reduce the cost of a college education, but creates five new entitlement programs and expands the reach of government programs over non-profit and commercial lenders.

The measure contains $21.5 billion in new spending over five years while saving only $752 million for deficit reduction. The bill cuts $22.3 billion from the Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) program, to force a shift to the government's direct lending program, increasing the government's role.

H.R. 2669 spends $7.1 billion on college graduates by gradually phasing down interest rates from 6.8 percent to 3.4 percent over four years, before allowing rates to return to the original rate in July 2012 to recover the costs of the new spending.

What we are voting on today does nothing address the problem facing college bound students--rising college costs. Instead of holding colleges and universities accountable for how they spend taxpayer dollars, we are doing the exact opposite. We are helping graduates, not students, and expanding the Federal government.

Budget gimmicks won't teach our children, and won't make college more affordable for low- to middle-income families. Until we take a real, thoughtful look at the reasons behind the skyrocketing cost of a higher education, we are simply going to continue to pass legislation that sounds good, but does little.

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