Ensuring Continued Access to Student Loans Act of 2008

Floor Speech

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Mr. COURTNEY. Mr. Speaker, what a difference 6 weeks makes. On March 14, under Mr. Miller's leadership, the Education and Labor Committee held a hearing on the question of student loan availability. And at that time, Secretary Spellings from the Department of Education came in and said that the administration was merely ``monitoring the situation,'' and expressed some diffidence and confusion about whether or not in fact the Federal Government really had a role to play in terms of being lender of last resort.

During the last 6 weeks, what we have seen is the collapse of Bear Stearns, we have seen lenders withdrawing from the student loan market, and a clear signal that the subprime mortgage crisis is in fact extending to the student loan market. In Connecticut, the Connecticut Commissioner of Higher Education Mike Meotti and the Director of Financial Aid at University of Connecticut, who I met with, confirmed the fact that they were seeing some withdrawal from the market and a need to step up their activity in terms of giving students more help as they enter a very challenging year, again, because of what is happening in the financial markets.

This legislation, which now the administration has come around in support of, will in fact strengthen the Direct Student Loan program and will confirm that the Federal Government will in fact be a lender of last resort so that it will make sure that, in August and September, students and families will not be running into difficulty and will in fact be able to go to college in the fall.

The Federal Government acted swiftly to help Bear Stearns, an investment bank which frankly morally and ethically didn't deserve the help. Millions of students, however, do. And this legislation, which will clearly confirm that the Federal Government has a role to play going into the summer months as students reach out to get financial assistance, that in fact the doors of colleges and universities will remain open.

I applaud Mr. Miller for his leadership going back to last March 14 and ensuring that passage of this bill will occur on a bipartisan basis.

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