Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and ZRelated Agencies Appropriations Act, 2005

DEPARTMENTS OF LABOR, HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES, AND EDUCATION, AND RELATED AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2005 -- (House of Representatives - September 09, 2004)

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to House Resolution 754 and rule XVIII, the Chair declares the House in the Committee of the Whole House on the State of the Union for the further consideration of the bill, H.R. 5006.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Kildee) for his leadership on this issue. I am very pleased to hear that this amendment is going to be accepted, because I think it is a bipartisan amendment. Its goal is to save the taxpayer money, money that could be better spent both towards reducing the deficit and investing in education programs like Pell grants and other programs which will help provide greater student loans to many needy students out there.

As Members have heard, this 9.5 percent loan scheme has been in place for some time, but only recently have we seen many people taking advantage of it and really abusing it. According to GAO's preliminary findings, it will cost the taxpayer $1 billion this year. If we do not close it now, it will cost the taxpayer even more down the road. These are dollars that could be invested in other forms of support in the area of education.

I do want to note that the budget submitted by the Bush administration this year, the fiscal year 2005 budget, assumed that we as a Congress would address this issue. So I very much hope that as this appropriation bill goes to the Senate, that we stick with this provision and this position, because if we do not and this is removed from the bill, it will end up costing the taxpayers billions of dollars going forward.

I am very pleased to hear that this has been accepted, but I do want to underline the importance of addressing this right now, because as a result of our action to close these loopholes, those that have been taking advantage of it may be encouraged to try and take even greater advantage of it until it is actually shut down. So if we do not shut it down in the next few months, we are going to see a further run on the taxpayer and further loss of valuable resources that we could spend and invest in other very important education initiatives.