Improving Higher Education Affordability

Floor Speech

IMPROVING HIGHER EDUCATION AFFORDABILITY -- (House of Representatives - January 09, 2009)

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Doggett) is recognized for 5 minutes.

Mr. DOGGETT. Madam Speaker, in these tough economic times, our families need all the support that we can provide them. Whatever we can do to assist those who seek more education and training to better prepare themselves for this tougher, tighter job market and rising unemployment and under-employment rates, we need to do.

That's why today, Representative Tom Perriello and I, joined by a number of our colleagues on the House Ways and Means Committee, are introducing the College Learning Access Simplicity and Savings Act. We want to put more students in class. It will make our ability to assist students to gain access to our institutions of higher education much easier. Students and their families can benefit from additional and more simplified tax credits for higher education expenses.

Last year, legislation that I offered simplified the student financial aid forms. Now, this legislation will take on the 1040. Today, higher education provisions are needlessly complex. It takes IRS an 86-page brochure to explain to families how to use the existing tax credits for higher education. The complex process is so challenging that 1 in 4 eligible taxpayers don't claim any of the benefits available. It shouldn't take a certified public accountant to become a CPA, or a teacher, or an engineer. This legislation would consolidate some of the existing provisions into a single, unified, easy-to-understand, higher education tax credit that is both more generous and easier to use.

Our bill joins the Hope Tax Credit (currently up to $1,800 per year) with the above-the-line tax deduction for qualified tuition and expenses (currently tax deductible up to $4,000). We replace all of this with a new $3,000 tax credit that is usable for undergraduate education and the first 2 years of graduate school, up to a lifetime limit of $12,000. Up to half of this new tax credit would, for the first time, be refundable. This ensures that working folks, families that are struggling to become part of the middle class, will no longer be excluded from this higher education tax credit.

This bill is, of course, no substitute for a substantial increase and an acceleration of those Pell Grant increases Congress has already enacted. But tax relief, done in a refundable form, can work hand-in-hand with Pell Grants to ensure more opportunity.

We are justifiably concerned with the federal deficit, but there's a real opportunity deficit we need to be concerned with also. When our students are not able to achieve their full, God-given potential, a deficit occurs, and it is that deficit, that opportunity deficit, that this legislation seeks to address.

I respectfully call on our new President-elect to consider inclusion of this legislation in the economic recovery legislation that this Congress must adopt as soon as possible. Investing in American students is an investment in America's future. Putting Americans to work means ensuring that they have access to all the education for which each is willing to work.

It was Thomas Jefferson who urged public support of higher education, wanting the youth of all our states to ``drink from the cup of knowledge.''

Today, there are students who are thirsty for that knowledge, but they confront a number of challenges. Mr. Perriello and I, and our colleagues, hope to address those challenges, and we hope we will have the opportunity to see this legislation enacted into law in the next few weeks.

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