Ensuring College Access For All Americans Act

Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I rise to speak on behalf of the Ensuring College Access for All Americans Act. I am pleased to loin Senators CORZINE and KENNEDY as a cosponsor.

This legislation would restore cuts to Pell grants, the principle Federal financial aid program for lower income college students. Although the President recently announced his intention to incremental increase the maximum grants available over the next 5 years, his administration has changed the formula for eligibility in a way that pushes thousands of American young people out of the program.

In Illinois, 48,600 students will be affected by this change. That's a lot of students who are trying to piece together the financial aid package they need to go to school next year. Of those, close to 1,500 young people will entirely lose eligibility for the program. Thanks to the changes made by this administration, students in Illinois will lose $5.5 million in direct Federal grants for college costs.

I urge my colleagues to keep in mind that 90 percent of Pell Grant recipients are considered low-income. Nearly 1.4 million recipients nationwide will see a reduction or total loss of their Pell grants. The Department's new tax tables will eliminate or reduce aid for 26 percent of all Pell grant recipients. These are kids--students--who with their families are working hard to finance a college education.

The students most affected by these changes are likely to work longer hours, borrow more money, or reduce their academic course load in order to balance any loss of funds. Without grant assistance, low-income students have to rely more heavily on student loans. Pell grant recipients are already four times more likely than all other students to take out loans, and they will graduate with twice as much debt as their peers.

Why is this happening? It has been 17 years since the tax tables were last updated. Yes, we need timely updates, greater accuracy and alignment with current state tax policy, but the administration's proposal does not even reflect current tax levels. Under the updated calculation, families are getting less credit for their state and local taxes at a time when they are actually paying more taxes. The administration's ``new'' tax tables are based on Fiscal Year 2002 State tax information. According to the National Association of State Budget Officers, though, since FY 2002, states have enacted $14.1 billion in tax and fee increases. Because the administration's proposal is still based on outdated tax information, it does not take into account these substantial increases in what families are actually paying in State taxes.

The legislation we introduce today restores fairness to the eligibility process. It restores opportunity for the 1.4 million low- and middle-income young people who are registering for classes, paying tuition and buying books at a time when tuition costs are rising exponentially. Let's make sense of the Pell grant eligibility process, protect the modest grant levels available for students, and extend the opportunity that higher education in America provides.

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