[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 183 (Wednesday, December 16, 2015)]
[Senate]
[Pages S8704-S8707]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
HIGHER EDUCATION EXTENSION ACT OF 2015
Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that I be
allowed to enter into a colloquy with Senators Ayotte, Baldwin, Casey,
and Portman.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. ALEXANDER. If it is agreeable to Senators, I will make a few
remarks introducing the subject of the colloquy, and then the Senators
will speak in that order. I am here today to talk about the Federal
Perkins Loan Program Extension Act of 2015, which is a substitute to
H.R. 3594. I have a bill which has been taken to the desk.
The original sponsors of the bill, which I will ask to be considered
at the conclusion of the colloquy, are Senators Ayotte, Baldwin,
Johnson, Casey, Cochran, Boozman, and me. We have debated the Perkins
loan several times on the floor of the Senate. Twice, I have objected
to the House bill to extend the Perkins Loan Program. This is a program
that was set to expire in 2012, since the 1998 reauthorization of the
Higher Education Act.
That date was not extended the last time we reauthorized the Higher
Education Act. This is a program that, in 1998, the Congress and the
President decided would expire in 2012. The expiration of the loan
program should not have been a surprise to anybody. It has not received
appropriations since 2004.
The Department of Education reminded institutions that the program
was expiring earlier this year. I objected to the extension on the
grounds that the current Federal loan program--one that all students,
not select students, are able to use--has a lower interest late and
better repayment options than the Perkins Loan Program. I objected
because I believed there should only be one Federal loan program for
undergraduate students, as well as one for graduate students, and one
for parents.
That was the testimony we received in our education committee, the
HELP Committee. Senator Bennet and I and a bipartisan group of Senators
have introduced something called the FAST Act, which would, in a
variety of ways, simplify the ability of students to apply for Federal
student aid. One of those ways is to simplify the maze of student loans
that are available to students today.
Sometimes students end up with more loans than they even know they
have. Then they have trouble paying them back. However, in recent
weeks, I have had many conversations with Senators. Some of them are on
the floor today and are Members of this colloquy, who have suggested to
me they would like to have the Perkins Loan Program extended until we
can address it in the Higher Education Reauthorization Act.
Senator Ayotte, Senator Baldwin, Senator Collins, Senator Casey,
Senator Johnson, Senator Portman, and Senator Blumenthal are some of
the Senators who have eloquently made that case on the floor of the
Senate. They came and argued the merits of the Perkins Loan Program.
Most of the arguments relied on the use of these loans by students to
provide for financing up to a student's full cost of attendance to meet
a gap in funding that is above their direct Federal loan limits for the
very neediest students; or they argued it was an important resource to
students in urgent circumstances such as when a student's parent loses
a job.
I listened to these Senators. I have listened to university
presidents and others who have talked with me about it. As a result,
today I come here with what I believe is a fair compromise, cosponsored
by the Senators that I mentioned, to address the specific issues
raised.
We propose a 2-year extension of the Perkins Loan Program while we
work on a long-term solution for simplifying the student aid program.
This extension will give us time to move forward on the Higher
Education Act reauthorization next year, and come to a consensus on how
to simplify the Federal student aid program, which has become so
complicated that many students will not even apply for loans, and many
of those who do don't realize the opportunities they have to pay the
loans back according to very generous terms.
That being said, I think it is important for me to say that I am
still, frankly, skeptical of the merits of this duplicative loan
program, which only serves 5 percent of all student loan borrowers and
amounts to a little over one-half of 1 percent of all the outstanding
federal student loans we have in the country today. The program
provides an average loan of about $2,000 and illustrates the
complicated mess our student loan system is in today.
My colleagues, cosponsors, and I have worked on this compromise to
extend the Perkins Loan Program for 2 years for all eligible
undergraduates and 1 year for current graduate students who have
already received a Perkins loan for the graduate degree they are
pursuing.
This is what the substitute does. It extends the Perkins Loan Program
until September 30, 2017, for all eligible undergraduates. It provides
1 year of additional Perkins loans to graduate students who have
already received a Perkins loan.
Under the Direct Grad PLUS Loan Program, graduate students have the
ability to borrow up to the cost of attendance annually and have no
aggregate or lifetime loan limits. In other words, you don't need the
Perkins loan as a graduate student to meet costs because you can get as
much money as you would need under the regular direct loan system.
The bill requires that the institutions award the maximum annual
limit of subsidized direct loans prior to awarding a Perkins loan for
current undergraduate Perkins loan borrowers.
It requires that institutions award the maximum annual limit of both
subsidized and unsubsidized direct loans prior to awarding a Perkins
loan for new undergraduate Perkins loan borrowers.
It requires the institution to disclose to Perkins loan borrowers the
following: that the program is ending; next, that this loan is not
eligible for certain repayment and forgiveness benefits available to
borrowers utilizing the Direct Loan Program.
For an undergraduate, the interest rate is lower in the Direct Loan
Program and they have a more generous way to repay the loan than under
the
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Perkins loan. We want the Perkins loan borrowers to know that.
We want them to know they may consolidate their Perkins loan into a
Federal direct loan to receive the benefits of the Direct Loan Program;
that is, the more generous repayment terms.
We want them to know that Federal direct loans and Perkins loans have
different interest rates.
We want them to know that if they are receiving a Perkins loan as an
undergraduate today and they have received one in the past, that their
institution has already awarded all subsidized Federal direct loans for
which they may be eligible for that year. In other words, the Perkins
loan is their second loan.
Many students borrow more than they should and then have trouble
paying it back. We want them to know that if they are receiving a
Perkins loan for the first time, their institution has already awarded
all subsidized and unsubsidized Federal direct loans for which they
were eligible that year and that this is their third loan.
If this whole Federal student aid system sounds complicated, it is.
There are millions of students across our country who take advantage
of generous Federal grants and loans--more than $30 billion in grants
that they don't have to pay back every year. There is a total
outstanding debt of federal student loans of $1.2 trillion, almost $100
billion in new loans every year. However, it is such a maze and so
complicated that many students don't understand how much they are
borrowing. So that was my purpose in objecting to an automatic
extension of the Perkins loan without thinking about it in terms of how
we simplify it and make it easier for students to understand the
tangled maze of loans in the Federal student aid system.
I thank my colleagues who are here today for being so eloquent and so
aggressive in pointing out the benefits of the Perkins Loan Program and
for coming up with the suggestion that we find a fair compromise so
that over the next 2 years the Perkins Loan Program will continue but
that during that time, both our education committee and the full Senate
and the House will have a chance to review and make simpler the Federal
system of grants and loans for students who attend our 6,000 colleges
and universities in the country.
At this point, I recognize Senator Ayotte of New Hampshire, who was
one of the first to come to the floor and very persuasively argue about
the importance of some continuation of the Perkins Loan Program.
Ms. AYOTTE. Mr. President, I thank the Senator from Tennessee. The
Perkins loan is a very important loan program to people in New
Hampshire and to 5,000 students in New Hampshire who are current
recipients.
While I know my colleagues who are on the floor who have fought so
hard for this--Senator Baldwin, Senator Casey, and Senator Portman--
would have preferred that the Senate take up and pass the House's
Higher Education Extension Act prior to Perkins expiring, because all
of us were on the floor on September 29 as well, I do very much
appreciate the spirit of compromise that the Senator from Tennessee has
shown in working with us to extend this very important loan program for
2 years, and I thank him for that and for not letting this expire.
I thank my colleagues on the floor who have fought so hard for the
students in their States who, like the students in New Hampshire, the
5,000 students who received a Perkins loan during the last academic
year--this is very important to those students. I have heard from them,
the colleges, universities, and financial aid administrators in New
Hampshire, who have urged that it is very important, especially before
we end the year with the Perkins Loan Program expired, that we pass
this extension.
Certainly I look forward to continuing to work to make sure that all
of our student loan programs are easier for people to use; that they
are simpler; and that we make sure young people in this country and
those who are returning to education as well--perhaps in a change of
career or a new course in their life--that they get the opportunity, no
matter where they come from or their economic background, to reach
their full potential in this country because that is the essence of the
American dream.
Again, this program is very important to my home State. This program
is also important to half a million students across the country. It
hits a lot of students.
Unfortunately, in my home State of New Hampshire, we have the
distinction of having the highest average student loan debt in the
country. So every bit helps students. These 5,000 students in New
Hampshire--I want them to know this program will continue, and I want
to make sure the people of New Hampshire understand that I am going to
continue to fight for access for all of our students in New Hampshire
and those who want to have better educational opportunities to better
their lives and reach their full potential.
I thank the Senator from Tennessee, and certainly I thank the other
Senators who are on the floor on a bipartisan basis who fought so hard
for the Perkins loan extension.
Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, I thank the Senator from New Hampshire.
She has been a passionate advocate for the Perkins loan recipients in
New Hampshire and across this country and played a major role in
developing this 2-year compromise that permits us to continue the
program while we look at the future.
Senator Baldwin of Wisconsin was one of the first on the floor to
point out the importance of passing the House bill and dealing with
this issue. She is a member of the Senate's education committee, what
we call the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee. Both she
and her colleague from Wisconsin, Senator Johnson, have vigorously
advocated for an extension of the Perkins Loan Program. I thank Senator
Baldwin for her hard work and look forward to working with her not just
on passing this bill but working in the committee to come to a proper
resolution on student aid.
Ms. BALDWIN. I thank the chairman for this colloquy and for the
moment at which we have now arrived.
Mr. President, I rise to speak about the Perkins Loan Program--a
vital investment in students that has been successful in helping
Americans access affordable higher education and pursue their dreams.
Due to Senate inaction, the Perkins Loan Program lapsed at the end of
September. I have twice come to the floor to urge my colleagues to take
action and extend this critical student loan program which has helped
literally millions of America's low-income students for more than half
a century.
I am proud to have earned the support of a strong bipartisan majority
in the Senate to continue this investment. Since the program's
expiration, a growing chorus of advocates, students, and colleges and
universities have joined our bipartisan coalition in calling on the
Senate to act.
As has been well documented, my friend Chairman Alexander and I have
had our differences on this issue. As he just shared, he has objected
to my previous efforts to revive the Perkins Loan Program due to his
concerns with the program that he wanted to address as a part of the
discussion about reauthorizing the Higher Education Act--a discussion,
by the way, I very much look forward to. But despite his prior
objections, I have certainly remained firm in the belief that we must
act now to help students, even as we look toward that future
conversation on higher education starting at the education committee
and then proceeding through the Congress.
I continue to work with my Republican colleagues and Democratic
colleagues--especially those Republican colleagues who had concerns
with the program--in order to find an interim path forward.
I am so pleased that we are here today with a bipartisan compromise
that provides a 2-year extension of the Perkins Loan Program. The
compromise before us today is not perfect, and this is not the
legislation I would have written on my own. However, today we have
found a bipartisan solution that breaks the gridlock and will revive
the Perkins Loan Program, providing critical support to students across
America who were left in the lurch when the program expired this fall.
This extension provides current and new undergraduate borrowers with
access to Perkins loans through September 30 of the year 2017, allowing
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them to complete both the 2016-2017 and 2017-2018 academic years with
the support of this important program. In addition, it provides current
graduate students with a Perkins loan an additional year of eligibility
through September 30, 2016, allowing them to complete the 2016-2017
academic year with the support of Perkins. Like the 1-year extension
measure which the House adopted by voice vote earlier this fall, this
2-year extension is fully paid for.
I thank Chairman Alexander for working with me and Ranking Member
Murray to address his concerns and to reach this compromise which we
expect the Senate to pass in short order.
I also thank my strong allies in this fight: Senator Murray, Senator
Casey, Senator Portman, Senator Ayotte, Senator Collins, and many other
supporters of the Perkins Loan Program in the Senate.
I also thank our partners on the House Education and the Workforce
Committee, Chairman Kline and Ranking Member Scott, who supported
extending the Perkins Program. I am hopeful they will push this
legislation across the finish line before Congress leaves for the year.
Since 1958, the Federal Perkins Loan Program has been successfully
helping Americans access affordable higher education with low-interest
loans for students who cannot borrow or afford more expensive private
student loans.
In Wisconsin, the program provides more than 20,000 low-income
students with more than $41 million in aid, students such as Andrew, a
current student at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point campus.
Without the support of his Perkins loan, Andrew said he would not have
had the means to attend college with the little to no income at his
disposal. Today, not only is Andrew making the dean's list every
semester, but he also has his sights set on attending the law school at
the University of Wisconsin. Andrew said: ``Without the assistance I
get from the Perkins Loan I would be forced to either take out other
high-interest loans, delay my graduation rate, or drop out--which is
the last thing I want to do.''
I am pleased that we have reached an agreement to extend this program
for 2 years to help students just like Andrew. I look forward to
working with my colleagues on the HELP Committee to ensure that campus-
based programs like Perkins are a part of the future of Federal support
for higher education.
Again, I thank the chairman for his colloquy and his hard work on
reaching this resolution for the moment and look forward to the larger
debate in the Education Committee when we reconvene next year.
Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, I thank the Senator from Wisconsin.
This is the second time in 2 weeks that she has played a role in an
important bipartisan decision on the floor of the Senate regarding
education. She has made a major contribution to our Elementary and
Secondary Education Act, and through her willingness to work in a
bipartisan way with other Senators who she mentioned, we have been able
to get a bipartisan result. Hopefully, it will be passed by the end of
the year, and then we will work together in committee to find the right
solution.
No Member came more quickly to me to talk about the Perkins Loan
Program than did the Senator from Ohio, Rob Portman, who has an eye for
the budget with his broad experience as Director of the budget and with
a large number of colleges and universities in Ohio. He is here today
to discuss the Perkins Loan Program, along with Senator Baldwin,
Senator Ayotte, and Senator Casey.
Mr. PORTMAN. Mr. President, I thank the Senator from Tennessee. I
appreciate his work and help to ensure these kids are not going to be
left in the lurch. There are kids in the State of Ohio who are
expecting to get their Perkins loans this January as they go into the
next semester, and there were certainly thousands of young people who
were hoping in the fall that they were going to be able to take
advantage of it, and they were very uncertain.
It is a big program in Ohio. We actually have over 25,000 Ohio
students who receive financial aid through Perkins. In one school
alone, Kent State, 3,000 students.
By the way, I got lobbied on this very directly. A young woman named
Keri Richmond interned in my office last summer. Keri is a classic
example of someone who needs Perkins because it fills in the gaps for
her. In her case, she has a Pell. Yet as a young woman who has been in
and out of foster homes her entire life--and, by the way, is a
wonderful advocate and spokesperson for that program and how it helps
foster kids to get on their feet--she does not have the help at home
that many students do. So even for the small things, she needs that
Perkins loan. She is very grateful today that we are extending this
program, of course; but, more importantly, she is grateful for all her
other colleagues at Kent State and around the State of Ohio.
I was with some Ohio State students a couple weeks ago for a holiday
party with the president of Ohio State, who is very pleased this has
been finally handled because he was trying to plan. As we know, schools
play a big role in Perkins. It is essentially like a revolving loan
program. With the interest, they are able to come up with new loans for
the next year. So the colleges and universities in Ohio are very
involved. We have 1,700 students at Ohio State; overall, we have 60
schools in the Buckeye State--colleges and universities--taking
advantage of this. So this is a big deal for us.
I appreciate the fact that the chairman has been willing to sit down
and work with us on this and come up with a way for us to move forward
to give these young people the certainty that they need at a time when
it is more expensive to go to college. This is a barrier for a lot of
young people to be able to get that degree, to get the experience, to
have the ability to be able to go out in this tough job market and be
able to find work and find their place in the workforce. I am happy we
have come to this point.
I will say I am very eager to work with the chairman, Ranking Member
Murray, and others over the next period of time while we extend this
program to come up with a better way to deal with our student loan
program generally. I think the chairman makes a good point about the
complexity. I think he is probably right that it is so complex that
some parents and students are turned off by it, and we can simplify it.
Certainly, we can, but I also want to make it clear that we need to be
sure that we are providing maximum flexibility for students who might
otherwise get left behind and wouldn't be able to take advantage of the
opportunity to go to college and get a degree. We should be doing
everything in our power to provide more students in my home State of
Ohio and around the country the chance to get the tools they need in
order to be able to be successful.
I thank Senator Ayotte, Senator Casey, and Senator Baldwin. We have
been at this for a while. We have been out here on the floor a few
times talking about this. I think this is a result that lets us say to
the people we represent back home: We are going to give you that
certainty, that confidence to know this is not going to be pulled away.
On the other hand, we are going to work hard over the next couple of
years to ensure that this program is viable for the longer term--along
with other programs--and simplify these programs so they do work better
for all the parents and all the students whom we represent.
I thank the chairman. This is one of the good results at the end of
the year. In a way, going into the Christmas season, it is appropriate
that we have this little package that is now wrapped up and has a
ribbon on it. But it does expire, so our work is not done, and we will
only redouble our efforts to ensure that we can come up with a program
that does provide the flexibility and important safety net that Perkins
does.
Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, I thank the Senator from Ohio. He is
exactly right. I know of no State that has more small colleges of the
kind that would take advantage of Perkins loan probably than the State
of Ohio. It is important to say that Senator Baldwin, Senator Casey,
and Senator Ayotte have been urgently making their case on the floor
over the last several weeks and have done so in such an effective way
that we have been able to come up with a bipartisan compromise. The
more of that we are able to do, I think the more confidence the
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American people will have in their Senators. So I appreciate his
leadership in making this possible.
Another Senator who is a member of the Senate's committee that
oversees education is the Senator from Pennsylvania, Mr. Casey. He,
too, has just completed work on the Elementary and Secondary Education
Act, which many people thought we had no chance of passing this year
and which we passed by a very large margin. I thank him, as I did
Senator Baldwin, for working in such a constructive way.
Some people look at the Senate and say: Well, you all are always
arguing. Of course we are. That is what we do. That is like looking at
the Grand Ole Opry and saying: You all are always singing. We have
different points of view--and we do on the Perkins loan. But once we
make our points of view known, we then do our jobs and we say: OK. Now
we need to get a result. If all we wanted to do was to make a speech or
make a point, we could stay home or get our own radio show. But we are
Senators, and our job, having had our say, is to get a result.
So I thank Senator Casey, the Senator from Pennsylvania not only for
his work on this compromise on Perkins loans but also for his work on
our efforts to fix No Child Left Behind. I look forward to his
comments.
Mr. CASEY. Mr. President, I thank the chairman for his work in
helping us get to this point today. It is an important moment at the
end of an important year, and we are grateful for his leadership. Even
when we have had a basic disagreement to get this compromise worked
out, it would not have happened, it could not have happened without his
leadership and working with Democrats on our side of the aisle, Senator
Murray, as the ranking member of the Health, Education, Labor, and
Pensions Committee, working with Chairman Alexander. I thank Senator
Baldwin for her work in leading this effort on our side and leading our
team.
This is a compromise, which, as Senator Alexander noted, some people
don't think we do enough of. I think it is an important example of why
we must work together.
When we consider the compromise that I worked on and the other
Senators who are here and others who are not here, along with our
staffs--I mentioned Jared and Lauren on my staff, who did a lot of work
on this, and we are grateful for that.
But we can report today some good news for more than 150,000 current
freshmen Perkins loan recipients whose eligibility was cut off when the
program expired on the 30th of September of this year. This bipartisan
agreement provides for a 2-year extension of the Perkins Loan Program
and provides some certainty for students and their families as we
debate a longer term solution. We have more to do. Simply put, what
students tell us they need is that basic certainty.
One of the reasons we are happy we have reached a compromise at this
stage is that I think most of us believe what have I often said--that
early education applies to higher education. If young people learn more
when they are in their college years, they are going to earn more
later. One of the ways to learn more when you are at that age is to
have the resources and help of a loan program such as Perkins.
Perkins loans are critically important in a State such as
Pennsylvania. Forty thousand students in Pennsylvania receive these
loans at more than 100 schools. As many people know, these loans are
fixed rate and they are low interest. Unlike traditional subsidized
loans, they don't accrue interest when the student is in school. They
have significant robust forgiveness opportunities for borrowers who,
for example, become high school teachers or first responders or
librarians or nurses or Peace Corps volunteers, among so many other
professions. The loans can be consolidated to qualify for income-based
repayment and other loan-forgiveness options.
This agreement ensures that those with the least financial resources
will be able to continue to receive this important source of financial
aid. Because of this compromise, freshmen and students across the
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania will not have to choose between dropping
out and taking out unaffordable, high-interest private loans in order
to secure their degree.
I would like to give two examples before I conclude.
Abigail Anderson, a freshman at Immaculata University, currently
receives a Perkins loan of $2,000. She said she had it all figured out,
but with this program expiring on September 30, she said: It changes
everything. She said she didn't know how she was going to pay for
school next year because her parents couldn't afford to pay any more.
About the Perkins Loans, Abigail Anderson said, ``Every little amount
counts. It makes a difference.''
Here is another example. Amber Gunn, a freshman at Temple University,
is from Hazelton, PA, near my hometown of Scranton. Amber did not have
enough money to pay her tuition bill even for this year. Her mother
wasn't able to cosign her loans, but she was able to get a Perkins loan
in the amount of $5,000 from the help of Temple University's financial
aid office. Amber Gunn said as follows:
Without the Perkins Loan I probably wouldn't have been able
to enroll for my first semester of school. I'm not sure what
I'll do next year without the loan, I'm kind of in a
predicament.
For some, that might be an understatement.
So now, with this bipartisan agreement, neither Abigail nor Amber and
so many others will have to worry. They can focus their attention on
the end of the semester, their exams--and whatever else they are having
to focus on--instead of wondering whether they will be able to afford
to return to campus for their sophomore years.
Even with this compromise, we have lots of work to do--more work to
do to come together on reauthorization of the Higher Education Act. But
this is a good moment for the Senate, and it is especially a good
moment for students and families across the country, and in my case for
the some 40,000 in the State of Pennsylvania.
I thank the chairman for his leadership and again thank Senator
Baldwin.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Tennessee.
Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, I once again thank the Senator from
Pennsylvania for being both a passionate advocate and skilled
legislator in helping us come to a result here that meets most of the
goals of the Senators who spoke about this, at least for the next 2
years, and gives us a chance in our committee to continue to work on
it.
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