Student Loan Debt

Floor Speech

Ms. WARREN. Madam President, 40 million people in this country--40 million--are dealing with more than $1 trillion in student loan debt. It is crushing our young people and dragging down our economy. It is a national economic emergency.

Yesterday Senators had a chance to do the right thing. We had a chance to allow young people with high-interest loans to refinance those loans down to a lower rate, a chance to move forward on the Bank on Students Emergency Loan Refinancing Act, and a chance to stand for our young people who are just starting their economic lives.

A majority of Senators voted to seize that chance. Every Democratic Senator, every Independent Senator, and three Republican Senators voted to seize that chance. But despite the majority support, despite this bipartisan support, the bill failed. Why? Because Republicans pulled out their favorite tool--the filibuster. They blocked the Senate from even debating this bill.

Over the past few days we have heard a lot of excuses, but yesterday the Republicans said we should not even consider this legislation until we voted on the Sanders-McCain legislation to address the situation at the VA. The VA legislation is a very good bill. It is a very important bill, and the Senate voted on it yesterday afternoon. So now that the Senate has passed it, where are the Republicans? The veterans vote is over, so where are the Republicans who are now ready to debate the student loan refinancing?

Veterans have spoken out on the student loan bill as well. The spokesperson for Student Veterans of America praised the student loan refinancing bill. He said this bill could provide real relief for his members--veterans who have served our country and who have worked hard to get an education. If the Republicans will let us vote, we can give our veterans that relief.

The Senate can come back to the student loan bill at any point. We can come back today, we can come back tonight, and we can come back tomorrow. We just need the Republicans to let us get back on the important legislation. Democrats are happy to offer a time agreement which would allow for a short debate, would allow for amendments, and would get us to a vote.

Let's be honest. Most of the Senate Republicans made the wrong choice yesterday when they voted to protect billionaires who have already made it instead of the young people who are fighting for a fair shot at a better future. I am still hopeful because despite the rhetoric, despite the excuses, despite the hemming and hawing, a large bipartisan majority of Senators stood for students yesterday. I am hopeful because I know that the minute the Republicans drop their filibuster, this bill will pass the Senate, and I am hopeful because we are just two votes short of breaking that filibuster. Now that we have had a vote on the veterans legislation, let's go back to the student loan bill.

This is not over. We are not done fighting for students. No one is giving up. We just need two more votes to go forward. We are going to push harder than ever for the student loan bill, and we are going to get it passed.

I thank the Presiding Officer.

The PRESIDING OFFICER. The assistant majority leader.

Mr. DURBIN. I ask, through the Chair, if the Senator from Massachusetts will yield for a question.

Ms. WARREN. Certainly.

Mr. DURBIN. First, through the Chair, I thank the Senator from Massachusetts for her leadership and her effort to refinance student loans.

Is it true that what was at stake yesterday was an opportunity for 25 million student loan borrowers--out of roughly 40 million nationwide--to refinance their student loans at a lower interest rate?

Ms. WARREN. Madam President, I thank the Senator from Illinois for his leadership on this issue, and the answer is yes. This would have permitted 25 million Americans to refinance their student loans down to lower interest rates, thereby putting hundreds, even thousands of dollars back in their pockets.

Mr. DURBIN. Through the Chair, I also ask the Senator from Massachusetts if it is true that the way we paid for this--this loss of interest by the Federal Government--was to impose the Buffett rule, which meant that those who are multimillionaires, for example, would have a higher income tax rate--at least as high as the secretaries who work for them--and that would have meant a tax increase on roughly 22,000 millionaires.

Ms. WARREN. That is exactly right.

Mr. DURBIN. Through the Chair again, the choice yesterday was between helping 25 million student borrowers get a lower interest rate, saving on average $2,000 a year, and asking 22,000 multimillionaires to pay slightly more in income tax, and sadly only three Republicans would join the Democrats in saying: Let's help the student borrowers. Is that what happened?

Ms. WARREN. That is right.

Mr. DURBIN. I say through the Chair to the Senator from Massachusetts that I have been traveling the State of Illinois, the city of Chicago, and every campus I stop on there are students who come forward and tell me their stories of the debt they have incurred because of their degrees and the impact it has had on their lives. There are student teachers who sadly cannot take jobs teaching because they owe too much money from college.

Is the Senator from Massachusetts hearing that in her State and around the country?

Ms. WARREN. Yes, I am hearing that in my State and around the country.

What really strikes me about this bill--there are a lot of things that happen that we can't fix here in Congress, but this is something we can fix. Right now the Federal Government is charging people who try to get an education 6 percent, 8 percent, 10 percent, 12 percent, and even higher on student loans. We have a very straightforward bill that would bring the interest rate down, put money back in people's pockets, and give people who are just trying to get a fair shot a real opportunity to build an economic future.

Mr. DURBIN. I will ask the last question through the Chair. So yesterday--so everybody can understand what happened--there was a threatened Republican filibuster to stop us from even debating this bill, and in order to stop the filibuster and begin debating the bill so 25 million students could get a lower interest rate on the student loans, we needed 60 votes on the floor. We had all the Democrats and only three Republicans--Senator Collins of Maine, Senator Corker of Tennessee, and Senator Murkowski of Alaska--prepared to vote. No other Republican Senator would join us in starting the debate on lowering the interest rate on student loans.

We need two more Republican Senators to join those three Republicans so we can start bringing relief to student borrowers all across the United States.

Is that where we stand today?

Ms. WARREN. That is exactly where we stand today. We are just two votes shy. What we know now is how the Republicans have voted. So now it is up to all of us to get two more Republicans to agree to just let us bring this bill to the floor. Just let us have the debate. Just let us have the vote.

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