Future Forum

Floor Speech

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Mr. JEFFRIES. I thank the distinguished gentleman, first, from
California for his leadership and for all that you have done to make
sure that issues of importance to the next generation of Americans,
such as the one that we are discussing here today, get prominence on
the House floor, this great vehicle for communicating to the American
people, and, of course, to be here with the still young pioneers of
this wonderful effort, Congresswoman Wasserman Schultz and Congressman Ryan.

It is just a great honor. Clearly, we have a student loan debt crisis that commands the
attention of the American people and should command the attention of
people here in the House of Representatives and on the other side of
the Capitol, but does not always do so, which is why communicating the
urgency of the situation is so significant, just the notion.

I have got constituents just shocked by the fact that, collectively,
we have got over $1 trillion of student loan debt here in America. That
is a very real number in terms of its implications, as you pointed out,
Congressman Swalwell, for the capacity of younger Americans to robustly
pursue the American Dream.

When you are saddled with that level of debt burden, it makes it far
more difficult to start a family, far more difficult to purchase a
home, far more difficult to be part of the next generation of great
American entrepreneurs and innovators, because you are less likely to
take a risk if you have got this monthly student loan bill that you are
unsure as to how you would pay if you were to take some time off to
start a business, to invent the next Google or Facebook or Twitter.

And so this is really an issue of great significance to us, as
Americans. And it is a shame. I will make this last observation.

I sat on the Budget Committee for the previous 2 years in the 113th
Congress, and the same is the case this year, that Republicans continue
to put forth a budget that is not designed to alleviate the problem of
higher education affordability. It is designed to make the problem
worse.

It will cut over $220 billion over a 10-year period in Federal
Government assistance in a variety of ways to younger Americans who are
struggling to get a college education and pursue the American Dream.

That is something that we have got to be able to address moving
forward or move in a different direction in terms of who the American
people send to this Congress to do their business.

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Mr. JEFFRIES. That is absolutely correct. I think what we have to do
is really work on changing the equation to facilitate the great minds
that we have got in this current generation of younger Americans to be
able to go out and be innovators and entrepreneurial in the context of
a vastly changing economy as well as a changing dynamic in terms of the
affordability of college education.

I am troubled by the fact, one, if you look at the productivity of
the American worker, what we have seen, of course, since the early
1970s is that it has increased dramatically, in excess of 275 percent
in terms of American worker productivity.

At the same time, wages during that period from the early 1970s to
the present have remained largely stagnant, less than 10 percent. So
the equation for the American worker has changed.

So what we have is that we have got younger Americans entering into a
workforce where the fundamental equation in terms of their compensation
has changed dramatically for the worse, the cost of a college education
has increased, the amount of financial assistance relative to the cost
of that college education has remained stagnant, if not declined in
real dollars, and the expectation in terms of the student debt loan
burden one is expected to shoulder upon graduation has exploded
exponentially.

You add all those things together and it is no surprise that you are
going to find yourself in a situation where people don't have the same
capability of being entrepreneurial as prior generations.

FDR, of course, brought forth the New Deal. What we need for this
current generation of Americans is just a fairer deal in the context of
giving them the same opportunities to robustly pursue the American
Dream, start great companies, innovate as prior generations, so we can
continue to be great.

I would also note that downtown Brooklyn, interestingly enough, which
I represent in the wonderful Eighth Congressional District----

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Mr. JEFFRIES. That is part of Silicon Alley. I am so glad that you
are familiar with our East Coast lingo.

But it also has more college students in downtown Brooklyn than
Boston and Cambridge combined. So there has been a great number of
young people who have come to Brooklyn who are contributing to our
fantastic innovation culture, but who are struggling with the
fundamentals of today's economy and higher education structure that is
working against them.

That is why we are here on the floor of the House of Representatives
fighting to change that.

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Mr. JEFFRIES. Mr. Speaker, that is absolutely the case. Certainly in
Brooklyn, which has become now an attractive place for so many people
to reside, not just from the city, the region, all across the country
and, indeed, the world, yet many of the young people who have moved to
Brooklyn who are starting a life in Brooklyn are renting in Brooklyn.
They are unable to purchase a home.

Some of that has to do with the significant appreciation in home
value that we have witnessed over the last decade, but a lot of that
has to do with the fact that they can't see their way to either a
downpayment on a home or carrying a monthly mortgage, given the student
loan debt burden that they have been forced to shoulder as a result of
the structure that has been put in place in terms of higher education
in America.

You made an important observation earlier in referencing the
President's plan for free community college education. If we can just
dwell there for a second, what is important to note is it used to be
the case, for prior generations who started the great American middle
class after helping to liberate the world coming back home to America
after World War II, that if you just had a high school diploma, for
many individuals, that was a pathway intothe middle class.
That is no longer the case in today's 21st century economy.

You can get a high school diploma at a high-quality public school for
free without any debt. So, at that point, as you entered into the
workforce, you could think about starting a family, purchasing a home,
and doing other things consistent with what it means to be part of the
great American middle class. That is no longer the case. A high school
diploma is not a pathway into the middle class. You have got to at
least go to college, if not get a graduate degree.

Given the high cost of a college education, it has changed the
equation for younger Americans in terms of their entry into the middle
class. That is why looking at bold proposals, such as dramatically
reducing, if not eliminating, the cost of public higher education at
the community college level, if not beyond, is something that we have
got to put front and center on the agenda here in the House of
Representatives.

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Mr. JEFFRIES. Mr. Speaker, if I can add to that observation that was
made by my good friend from the Sunshine State, the three of us had a
wonderful opportunity to visit Israel together, along with several
other members of our class and, of course, Steny Hoyer, who led the
delegation in August of 2013.

I was struck in our conversations with some of the members of the
Israeli society how well those individuals who had served in the IDF
and then matriculated into society were treated. Their service in the
IDF was highly valued--not just via words, but through deeds--and it
enabled them to really build a successful career. They were treated
with reverence.

Congressman Swalwell, one of the things that perhaps was most
disconcerting about my first few years in this institution is there is
a lot of rhetoric--I guess I shouldn't be surprised that this is a
place where there is a lot of hot air often spewed--that is devoid of
substance. And in the area of veterans, in particular, what we find is
that there is a lot of talk about treating veterans appropriately in
terms of the sacrifice that they have made, their service, but we
haven't really filled in the blanks in terms of substance.

One of the areas that clearly is problematic is the fact, though we
are promising to enable them once they leave their service to assist
with furthering their educational goals, we are not providing them with
the financial assistance and the resources necessary to actually make
that happen. So I embrace efforts by Congressman Murphy and others to
try to fill in the blanks in that regard, but a whole lot more needs to
be done. We should be treating our veterans with the same reverence and
respect, not just rhetorically, but substantively, as is done in
Israel, our good friend and ally, and many other places in this world.

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Mr. JEFFRIES. Mr. Speaker, I thank the distinguished gentleman from
the Golden State for his leadership and for putting forth this effort,
bringing in younger Members of Congress to be able to speak to issues
of relevance, not just to the entire body of the American people, but
specifically to the next generation of Americans that will continue to
make this country great as long as we provide them with the tools and
the opportunity.

I agree with my good friend from Florida that this is an issue that
should not be partisan in nature. This is an issue that impacts people
from north to south, to the east and the west, from urban communities,
suburban communities, rural communities, red States, blue States, all
over America. I think what we are saying here today is that we extend
out our arms, our olive branch of friendship and partnership on behalf
of the American people to try to solve this problem together.

It is clear that there is a problem, it cannot be denied, and it is
one that requires urgent intervention in order to make sure that we can
continue to preserve the American Dream for the greatest number of
younger Americans possible. Right now, the dream is being suffocated in
ways that threaten our economic vitality moving forward, and that is a
tragedy. But I remain optimistic. We were sent here all collectively to
get things done, and I look forward to working together in that regard.

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