The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
“EDUCATION ASSISTANCE VITAL FOR AMERICA” mentioning the U.S. Dept of Labor was published in the House of Representatives section on pages H5054-H5055 on May 16, 1995.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
EDUCATION ASSISTANCE VITAL FOR AMERICA
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Camp). Under a previous order of the House, the gentleman from West Virginia [Mr. Wise] is recognized for 5 minutes.
Mr. WISE. Mr. Speaker, today while we are all talking about the budget, I would like to talk some about growth, because the reality is that you do not cut your way out of this kind of deficit problem, $1.2 or $1.4 trillion worth of cuts, cutting every program 30 percent across the board. You certainly do not
[[Page H5055]] tax your way out of it. You are going to have to have a strong element of economic growth. My concern about this budget that will be on the floor today and tomorrow, the Republican budget out there for review, actually Wednesday and Thursday, is that what this budget does is it goes after growth.
Let me give you an example why. I hold here thousands of petition signatures of West Virginia college students and high school students, and I am willing to bet some parents, all who signed petitions circulated across our State in just the last couple of weeks urging Congress not to adopt the student loan cuts that are proposed in this budget. Whether it is West Virginia University, Shepherd College, Glenville, Fairmont State, University of Charleston, D&E, Davis and Elkins, you name it, 16 colleges and universities participate in this program, sending petitions under our own name, SAVE, Save America Via Education. They organized this effort themselves. They circulated the petitions, got up on Internet. The message is clear to Congress, thousands of people saying ``Do not cut student loans.''
Basically what is proposed to be cut is the Stafford Student Loan Program, the one that pays the interest while the student is in college and for 6 months thereafter.
Does it make much of a difference? It adds something like 20 to 50 percent to the lifetime cost of that loan. Many of these students somewhere along the road, and I visited many of the locations, said to me if that had been in effect I would not be able to be in college today; I would not be able to be in school today.
I have heard some say lightly, well, $21 a month, maybe that is all it is going to be. One CD, one music CD. Rubbish. For many people, $21 a month is a lot of money over a number of years. It is more in many cases, such as the nontraditional students, the
mother who has put herself through a 4-year program, now getting an MBA, who said her daughter is now getting ready to enter undergraduate school, who told me how it would have been impossible at $21 more a month to have accomplished that.
Why is this so important? It is so important because, getting back to growth for a second, the opportunities created by a college education mean that our economy will grow at record levels. Those of you older than 40 or 50 remember the impact of the GI bill, when millions of veterans came home from the war and were able to get that education.
The Department of Labor estimates that everyone who finishes college on the average will have a 60-percent higher lifetime income than those that do not. This college education clearly is a ticket to success, not only for individuals, but also for our society.
There is also a problem with college classrooms. If you have less people able to attend college, and, incidentally, since 1979 the median income has gone up roughly 88 percent, I believe it is, while the tuition costs have gone up more than double that. So family income does not keep up with tuition income, which means these programs are more important. But there is also the very real fact that even those able to pay the full amount of tuition will find less students in school and therefore less classes available.
This is not a partisan issue. This is parents. It is teachers. It is students. It is anyone concerned about higher education. These thousands of students from across West Virginia have recognized clearly the impact this has.
Incidentally, it is not an interest loan deferral for all their lives; it is only for the time they are in school. they pay these loans back. But what the Federal Government does is to assist them in making sure they do not pay interest while they are actually in school.
So I would urge Members not to support this Republican proposal to cut student loans. While I am here, let me note I found of interest, it was just a month ago as I traveled the State when Republicans were asked about this. They said we have no intentions to do that. Today it is in the budget in a bigger way than I ever dreamed. I thought it was going to be $16 billion. It is 33 billion dollars' worth of cuts.
So to respond to those who signed these petitions, this battle is going to go on over the summer and fall, and we urge many more people to make their voices heard. If you want to talk about growth, growth in our children, growth in our society, growth in our economy, then we cannot be cutting the student loans. I would urge rejection of the budget for that reason alone.
____________________
