Nuclear Iran Prevention Act of 2013

Floor Speech

Ms. CLARKE. Mr. Speaker, today, I rise in opposition to the Motion to Concur in the Senate Amendment to H.R. 1911--the Bipartisan Student Loan Certainty Act of 2013.

This bill will peg student loan interest rates to the 10-year Treasury note allowing the rate to fluctuate with financial markets.

Specifically, the bill would peg the permanent student loan interest rate to the 10-year Treasury note plus 2.05% for undergraduate subsidized and unsubsidized Stafford loans; the 10-year Treasury note plus 3.6 % for subsidized and unsubsidized Stafford loans; and the 10-year Treasury note plus 4.6% for Parent Plus and Graduate Plus loans.

One positive thing that this bill does do is that it caps student loan interest rates at 8.25% for undergraduates, 9.5% for graduate students, and 10.5% for Parents Plus and Graduate Plus loans.

I am disappointed with this bill because it fails to permanently keep student loan interest rates at their current fixed rate, and in doing so increases the cost to borrowers over the next 10 years by an estimated $715 million dollars.

Despite the public outcry over student loan debt, now totaling over $1 trillion dollars, Congress has chosen to make an estimated $715 million dollar profit off of student loans.

This is shameful! We should not be making a profit off the backs of students. Students are our future. An educated populous is what America needs to remain competitive in the 21st century. Balancing the budget on the backs of students is wrong, unfair and shameful!

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