Keep Student Loans Affordable Act of 2013--Motion to Proceed--Continued

Floor Speech

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Mr. SANDERS. Madam President, over the July 4th recess I had the opportunity to talk with a number of young families about the crisis of student debt. Without exception, this is what they said: Please do not double the interest rates on subsidized Stafford loans from 3.4 to 6.8 percent.

Please make college financing more affordable, not more expensive.

This is an issue which not only impacts millions of families, it impacts our entire future as a nation and our economy. Right now, working-class families all over this country are asking themselves a very simple question: Does it make sense for them to go $40,000, $50,000, $100,000 in debt in order to get a college education? Many of these young people and families are saying: No, it doesn't make sense.

So in a competitive global economy, we are saying to families all over this country that we do not want their kids to get a college education. We don't want them to become doctors, nurses, businesspeople, scientists, and teachers. We don't want them to expand their intellectual capabilities and make us a competitive nation in this highly competitive global economy.

Now, if that makes sense to somebody, it surely does not make sense to me. The doubling of student loan interest only makes an existing crisis even worse. According to a report by the Consumer Financial Protection Agency, the total student loan debt in the United States now exceeds $1.1 trillion, which is nearly triple what it was in 2004. The average loan balance for American graduates has increased by 70 percent since 2004.

Average student debt is near $27,000. In Vermont, it is even higher--over $28,000.

The burden of student loans is making it much harder for young people to get mortgages and buy homes. Home ownership rates for young adults are among the lowest in decades. Young people are putting off marriage and having children partly because of the burden of student debt.

Over the last several months I have asked Vermonters--and people, in fact, all over the country--to send me their experiences, to tell me what this crushing debt of student loans means to their lives. We received over 700 responses from all over America. What I would like to do is very briefly read to you some of the responses I received from the State of Vermont.

Emily Decker from Colchester, VT writes:

Watching the interest eat away my savings every month is hard to swallow. To the point where we are not saving any money because we put anything extra toward my loans so we can pay them back ASAP. This is putting our plans for having a family on hold because we want to have our finances in better order before doing so.

In other words, Emily writes they are hesitating having kids because they can't afford to do so at the current time.

Andrew Craft from Burlington, VT writes:

I am a 25 year old full-time college student at Champlain College. I am a single mother. I am already $20,000 in debt and I still have one more year to go before I graduate. I am currently at an internship working part-time on top of school and parenting, but I often feel like I am not ever going to be able to ``get ahead'' and ``make it'' in spite of my advantages.

Allison LaFlamme from Johnson, VT writes:

I cannot refinance my house, because even though my cars, home, and credit cards are perfect on my credit score our debt to income is too high because of our student loans.

Melissa Weber from Rutland, VT writes:

I have found myself struggling to survive independently as a 25 year old with a Master's Degree. Yes I have achieved a degree, of which I am proud, but I have also accumulated an immense amount of debt that will likely haunt me for the majority of my life. As a result of my daunting loan payments I find myself barely surviving on an income that should easily support a small family.

Evan Champagne from St. Albans, VT writes:

My wife and I both have $50K-$60K of loan debt each. We both have good jobs, but a large percentage of our income is used to pay back student loans. There are no low interest consolidation options available. If there were, that would also help. The education process should be rewarding and create opportunities. For my wife and I, it did the opposite.

The American people want us to come together and solve this problem now, not make the situation worse. When we tell people who are struggling with these horrendous debts that the Stafford subsidized loan rate is going to double and there are proposals out there that make a bad situation worse, they respond in disbelief. They remember in 2009 when Wall Street collapsed because of their greed and illegal behavior, we bailed them out. They understand that today we are providing large Wall Street institutions with interest rates of less than 1 percent. They are asking: If you can bail out Wall Street--people whose greed caused the current recession--how come you can't protect working-class and middle-class families and enable their kids to get an affordable college education?

The Republicans in the House passed a proposal. Unfortunately, it is a proposal which makes a bad situation worse. Under the House Republicans' proposal, all student loans would have variable interest rates, exposing graduates to market conditions. Even though the House Republicans' proposal caps interest rates, the Congressional Research Service estimates that students who take out the maximum subsidized student loan amount will pay nearly $6,000 more over the life of that loan than they would if rates are kept where they are today.

The so-called bipartisan student loan bill being discussed in the Senate would also be a terrible deal for students, especially in the coming years. It provides no cap to protect students for the first time in the history of the student loan program. If this proposal were to pass, according to CBO projections of interest rates, by 2018 student loan rates will go up significantly.

Short term, we have to keep student loan interest rates at 3.4 percent. Long term, we need a national solution to make sure college is affordable for all Americans.

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