CLINTON, HILLARY: Mr. President, I am delighted to come to the floor and talk about this extremely important piece of legislation and I thank our leader, a great advocate on behalf of education
CLINTON, HILLARY: and the chairman of the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, Senator Kennedy.
CLINTON, HILLARY: This bill really represents a tremendous victory for students, for their families, for higher education, for the future of the American economy, for millions of families who still struggle to pay for
CLINTON, HILLARY: college and for millions of young people who will not only carry from their education a degree, but, on average, more student debt than any graduates who came before them.
CLINTON, HILLARY: Most of all, this bill is a victory for that young boy or girl who is thriving in school, who might one day wish to attend college and fulfill his or her God-given potential but worries that such a
CLINTON, HILLARY: wish is beyond his or her reach; that it's just too expensive to realize.
CLINTON, HILLARY: I want to commend the members of the committee on both sides of the aisle for the great work that has been done bringing this bill to the floor. I was thrilled with many of the provisions, some of
CLINTON, HILLARY: which I have worked on ever since I came to the Senate, particularly focusing on nontraditional students who more and more are becoming the norm older students, married students, single-parent
CLINTON, HILLARY: students who often have found there were barriers to their accessing whatever help was available from the Federal Government programs to continue their education.
CLINTON, HILLARY: I am also personally just thrilled at what we have done for homeless and foster youth. This has been a passion of mine, going back to my years as a law student, when I first started representing
CLINTON, HILLARY: abused and neglected children, children who ended up in the foster care system, all the way through my time in the White House, where we were instrumental in working with the Congress in passing
CLINTON, HILLARY: landmark legislation to make adoption easier, to try to make the foster care system more responsive to the needs of the child and to accelerate decisions being made as to whether or not a child would
CLINTON, HILLARY: ever realistically be able to return to his or her biological family; to my years in the Senate, where we have continued to try to help students who are in the foster care system as they age out.
CLINTON, HILLARY: As Senator Murray pointed out, when you turn 18 or graduate from high school, whichever comes first, still in many States in our country, you are no longer eligible for the foster care system and
CLINTON, HILLARY: what that has meant is that a social worker usually shows up at the foster home with a big black garbage bag and tells the young man or woman to put his or her belongings into that bag because they
CLINTON, HILLARY: are no longer able to live in a foster home with State support. Many young people whom I have been privileged to know, some of whom have interned for me, have worked for me in my office here or in my
CLINTON, HILLARY: office in the White House, they were the lucky ones. They had the right combination of personal resilience and ability combined with mentoring and some breaks along the way that enabled them to
CLINTON, HILLARY: complete high school and often go to college at great cost.
CLINTON, HILLARY: Many of them had nowhere to go during summer vacations or Thanksgiving or Christmas or any other break in the academic schedule. Some of them hid themselves in the dorm. Some of them stayed in bus
CLINTON, HILLARY: stations or airports. Some of them prevailed upon a friendly professor or fellow student to take them in.
CLINTON, HILLARY: So by recognizing the special needs of these special students, we really do a very important piece of legislative business that has a big heart in it and I thank my colleagues and others who worked
CLINTON, HILLARY: with me and others to make this happen.
CLINTON, HILLARY: Now, when we think about the importance of college, it is hard to grasp the fact that most young people in our country will not go to college and graduate. The college-going rate has been pretty
CLINTON, HILLARY: stagnant now for about 20 or 30 years and as the cost of higher education has gone up, it has become even more difficult for young people to work their way through, to afford the increases in tuition
CLINTON, HILLARY: and room and board. But the investment in college still remains a very good one.
CLINTON, HILLARY: Each additional year of education after high school increases an individual's income by 5 percent to 15 percent. A college degree will enable an individual to earn close to one million dollars more
CLINTON, HILLARY: in the course of a life's work than those who have only a high school diploma.
CLINTON, HILLARY: It is no coincidence that the rise of the American middle class coincided with the explosion of college attendance. It unlocks economic potential, and it gives students access to the American dream
CLINTON, HILLARY: to a career and a life that they, then, can build.
CLINTON, HILLARY: But as I say, unfortunately in the past 25 years, the cost of college has risen faster than inflation. College costs have tripled over the past 20 years and, as the costs spiral upward, so does the
CLINTON, HILLARY: size of the loans and the loan payments that are necessary. Students who borrow, take out loans averaging $15,500 while attending public colleges and universities and almost $20,000 while attending
CLINTON, HILLARY: private schools, twice what they would have borrowed just 10 years ago.
CLINTON, HILLARY: At New York University in Manhattan, 60 percent of students graduate owing an average of $27,639. At Idaho State University, 69 percent of students graduate owing an average of $29,467. And at the
CLINTON, HILLARY: University of Miami in Florida, whose president served with such distinction in this town as the Secretary of Health and Human Services for 8 years, 58 percent of the students graduate owing an average of $31,723.
CLINTON, HILLARY: Now, this debt limits students' options and damages their financial futures. It really is a chain around their ankles as they end their education and go out into the world of work. With this
CLINTON, HILLARY: reconciliation bill, we are cutting that chain. This bill will provide $17.3 billion dollars in student aid, the largest increase in student aid in more than a decade.
CLINTON, HILLARY: And it will provide this aid without raising Federal taxes one dime. First, the higher education reconciliation bill increases the purchasing power of the Pell grant, which help the lowest income
CLINTON, HILLARY: students offset the cost of college. It's no secret to anyone in this Chamber that the purchasing power of the Pell grant has declined dramatically, from nearly 60 percent of the cost of a public
CLINTON, HILLARY: school 20 years ago, to only 36 percent today.
CLINTON, HILLARY: This legislation provides the largest Pell grant increases in more than a decade, increasing maximum Pell grants to $5,100 immediately, and to $5,400 by 2011. Now, take my State, for example. This
CLINTON, HILLARY: initial boost will provide over $200 million dollars in increased grant aid to New York students for the 2007-2008 school year alone, and $1.7 billion by 2013. The legislation also raises the income
CLINTON, HILLARY: cutoff for Pell grants from $20,000 to $30,000, making many more students from many more families eligible to receive a Pell grant.
CLINTON, HILLARY: Second, I am very pleased that the Higher Education Reconciliation Act tackles an issue addressed in legislation I sponsored in the last Congress called the Student Borrowers Bill of Rights. It
CLINTON, HILLARY: provides protection for student borrowers while they repay their loans. It does so by capping monthly loan payments at 15 percent of the borrower's discretionary income and providing several
CLINTON, HILLARY: important protections to members of the Armed Forces and public service employees during repayment.
CLINTON, HILLARY: This is critical to helping students manage their debt, especially in the first few years after they graduate. Third, I am pleased the reconciliation bill also creates a new loan forgiveness plan
CLINTON, HILLARY: through the direct loan program for public service employees. You know, I hear from many students in New York and around the country who would love to be teachers or police officers or firefighters
CLINTON, HILLARY: or nurses or social workers or public defenders, but sadly, they are so saddled with debt, that such careers in the public arena seem like an impossibility for them. That is the wrong policy.
CLINTON, HILLARY: We want to encourage more young people to go into public service. Our policies should respect that choice, not denigrate it. Under the loan forgiveness program, the remaining loan balance on a loan
CLINTON, HILLARY: is forgiven for a borrower who has been employed in a public sector job and making payments on the loan for 10 years. These jobs are essential to the communities they serve.
CLINTON, HILLARY: And I believe this program will encourage public service and provide an incentive for borrowers to pursue low-paying, perhaps, but vital professions to our country. You know, Mr. President, when I
CLINTON, HILLARY: was getting ready to go to college many years ago, my father, who was a small businessman, a very small business, said that he had saved enough money for me to go to college, and he could pay
CLINTON, HILLARY: tuition, room and board, but if I wanted to buy a book, I had to earn the money. And that was fine because I worked ever since I was 13 in the summer and during vacations. So I worked my way through
CLINTON, HILLARY: college with my family's help. And when I graduated I decided I wanted to go to law school. I told my father that and he said: That is not part of the bargain. If you want to go to law school, you
CLINTON, HILLARY: have to pay for it yourself.
CLINTON, HILLARY: So I got a little scholarship, and I continued to work year-round, and I borrowed money directly from the Federal Government, the National Defense Education Act, something which many of us in this
CLINTON, HILLARY: Chamber took advantage of when we were pursuing our education.
CLINTON, HILLARY: And the interest rate was very low. The repayment schedule was something I could handle. I didn't have to worry about anyone raising the rate on me or changing the terms. I just worked first for the
CLINTON, HILLARY: Children's Defense Fund as a young lawyer, and then in public service here in Washington, working for the Congress, and then teaching law at the University of Arkansas and running a legal aid clinic.
CLINTON, HILLARY: And during all of those years when I was doing public service and academic work, I could handle what my repayment obligations were. I want that available for young people today. I think it is so
CLINTON, HILLARY: important, especially as we look at what is happening in Government service and other public service professions, to see how there is an aging going on that is going to eventually result in the loss
CLINTON, HILLARY: of a lot of very experienced people.
CLINTON, HILLARY: You know, I spent Monday at Binghamton University in New York where we have the only Ph.D. program in rural nursing and I met with the nursing faculty and some of the nursing students. It is a
CLINTON, HILLARY: wonderful program. But, you know, the average age of a nurse in America is over 45 and the average age of a nursing faculty member is 54. We have many people who want to go to nursing school, and we
CLINTON, HILLARY: do not have places for them, even though they are qualified and we have a lot of others who worry about how they can pay for their education.
CLINTON, HILLARY: You could replicate that across every single profession that really falls into the service profession, the caring professions, where we are seeing shortages of people going into because there is a
CLINTON, HILLARY: disconnect between the salary they are paid and the debt they have to incur in order to get the credentials to be able to perform the public service.
CLINTON, HILLARY: So I believe in the long run this increase in student aid will pay for itself. Not only do college graduates earn more and are therefore able to pay back to society, but they are less likely to draw
CLINTON, HILLARY: on public resources, and they are much more likely to really make a contribution.
CLINTON, HILLARY: You know, this bill had great bipartisan support and I am very proud to have worked on it and to see the positive changes that it includes. Clearly, this is something that I hope we will be able to
CLINTON, HILLARY: pass by acclamation, Mr. President. I hope that after the difficulties and the debate and the disagreement of the last week over the very difficult issue of Iraq, I hope we will come together around
CLINTON, HILLARY: a fundamental American value; education.
CLINTON, HILLARY: We have the best higher education system in the world. It is a system filled with second chances for people who decide at the age of 18 or 80 that they want to pursue an education in a community
CLINTON, HILLARY: college, at a technical college or a 4-year college or a university. This is one of the really important aspects of American society, and it is instrumental to the further development of our economy
CLINTON, HILLARY: and the hope of a return to shared prosperity for our people.
CLINTON, HILLARY: Mr. President, I highly urge all of our colleagues to come together to support this higher education reconciliation bill, to make higher education more affordable. It is good social policy. It is
CLINTON, HILLARY: good economic policy. It is certainly good budgetary policy and it makes a big difference to millions and millions of hard-working young people and their families.
CLINTON, HILLARY: Mr. President, I yield the floor. Mr. President, I note the absence of a quorum.