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Floor Speech
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Mr. CASSIDY. 1220, a bill seeking to transfer the burden of $230 billion in student debt to the 87 percent of Americans who chose not to go to college or already responsibly paid off their loans.
To be clear, this legislation does not differentiate between those trapped with overwhelming debt and those who could easily pay back their loans. If this bill is enacted, a majority of those who borrowed money to get a bachelor's degree would not have to pay back even the principal on their loans, and 91 percent of their student debt would be eligible for reduced payments. And it would be subsidized by everybody watching on C-SPAN right now.
There is no free lunch. These policies are as unfair as they are irresponsible. Where is the relief for the Louisiana truckdriver who took out a loan to buy a truck? What about the hard-working mom who paid off her student loans but now struggles to afford her mortgage? Would this legislation give those Americans relief? No, it gives them a greater burden. The truckdriver and that mom, they are on the hook for those who decided to go to college to get a degree to make more money. They would be on the hook for that, as well as their own cost of living.
Now, I am sure my Democratic colleagues will argue that some of those students are trapped with overwhelming debt, and this legislation will help them get out of it. But this bill does nothing to address the broken higher education system that created the overwhelming debt in the first place. It doesn't address the rising costs at colleges and universities. And let's point out that, in the last 30 years, tuition and fees at private nonprofit colleges have risen by 75 percent. At public 4-year institutions, they have increased by 102 percent.
Meanwhile, according to a nonpartisan analysis, 23 percent of bachelor's degree programs and 43 percent of master's degree programs had a negative return on investment. What does that mean? It means you spend a lot of money to get your degree, but you don't actually increase your ability to earn more money because of that degree and, along the way, you get into student loan debt.
We need real solutions to fix this broken system, and Republicans provide these solutions. As chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, I am leading my committee's portion of the One Big Beautiful Bill, legislation that will make transformative changes to the higher education system.
First, it reforms student loan repayment plans that cost American taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars. This includes fixing our income-driven repayment program that is targeted to help struggling Americans.
Second, it increases the affordability of higher education by eliminating inflationary loan programs that evidence shows drive higher tuition prices and cost taxpayers billions of dollars.
Third, it restores accountability so that universities are not receiving Federal loan dollars for programs that leave students worse off than if they had never entered that program.
And, lastly, this legislation increases access to career or technical education through establishing Workforce Pell. A young person from Louisiana who wants to be a master welder doesn't need to attend a 4- year university, but they can now use their Pell grant to attend a technical school, giving them the skills for a successful career. That is a wise investment of Federal student loan dollars.
Unlike S. 1220, the legislation before us today, Senate Republicans are putting forth real solutions to address the root causes of the student loan crisis.
I look forward to working with my colleagues to get the One Big Beautiful Bill across the finish line so we can fix the broken higher education system and ensure that every American can succeed.
Mr. President, the Democrats' legislation is unfair to the hundreds of millions of taxpaying Americans who will be forced to bear the burden of paying off someone else's student debt. It would make our higher education problems worse, not better. And for those reasons, I object.
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