Providing for Consideration of H. Con. Res. 27, Concurrent Resolution on the Budget for Fiscal Year 2016

Floor Speech

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Mr. COURTNEY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from New York.

I rise in opposition to the rule and to the previous question, as she
just stated, would allow consideration of H.R. 1434, the Bank on
Students Emergency Loan Refinancing Act.

Mr. Speaker, there is an emergency out there for young Americans who
are trapped in high interest rate students loans. The Federal Reserve
bank has tallied that. It is $1.3 trillion of overhang in the U.S.
economy.

None other than the former Republican Governor of the State of
Indiana and the former Budget Director under George Bush testified
before the Education Committee the other day, and this is what he said:

Research from the Pew Research Center and Rutgers shows
that today's 20- and 30-year olds are delaying marriage,
delaying childbearing, both unhelpful trends from an economic
and social standpoint.

Between 25 percent and 40 percent of borrowers report
postponing homes, cars, and other major purchases. Half say
that their student loans increase their risk of defaulting on
other bills.

There are 7.5 million young Americans who are behind on their student
loans. Again, they are trapped in no collateral, high interest rate
documents that our bill allows them to write down.

Anyone watching this debate knows that when there is a period of low
interest rates--and that is exactly what is the situation today--middle
class families refinance their houses, refinance their car loans, and
refinance their credit cards; but students and people carrying student
loan debt because of the fact that they were no-collateral loans are
trapped.

Our bill allows them to go to the Department of Education, write down
those interest rates to 3.6 percent. The Congressional Budget Office
has told us that half of the trillion-dollar overhang would be
refinanced down if this bill took place. That puts money in people's
pockets, as the Pew Research Center shows. That means that they are
going to go out and buy cars, buy homes, and start families.

Our failure to deal with this issue is strangling this economic
recovery. And incredibly, we are going to take up a Republican budget
which cuts Pell Grants and also raises interest rate costs for Stafford
loan programs.

Let's be very clear: this budget allows the government to charge
interest while people are in school, which has been a pillar of the
Stafford student loan program, that interest is not charged while kids
are going through college. Yet the Republican budget adds to that $1.3
trillion in overhang by adding interest costs in their budget plan.

The hard-working American people who want to buy homes, who want to
send their kids to college, have an opportunity with this legislation,
H.R. 1434, to allow them to refinance down their interest rates to a
lower out-of-pocket cost that will provide an automatic, instant
stimulus to the U.S. economy. That is what the American people are
looking for, not a Republican budget plan that compounds the largest
area of consumer debt in the U.S. economy. It adds costs to folks whose
Pell grants won't rise and whose interest rates are going to go up on
their Stafford loans.

The choice is very clear with this vote that we are about to take.
One vote is going to add to the student loan problem, which the Federal
Reserve has identified as the largest consumer debt challenge of our
Nation, and the other vote will allow us to move forward to solving
that problem.

Vote ``no'' on the rule. Vote ``no'' on the previous question. Let's
help those 7.5 million kids and young people who are behind on their
student loans. Allow them to refinance down their interest rates, which
is what happens all throughout the U.S. economy during a time of low
interest rates.

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