Keystone XL Pipeline Act -- Continued

Floor Speech

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Ms. COLLINS. I thank the Presiding Officer, and I thank the Senator
from Alaska for yielding to me for this purpose and I commend her, as
well as the Senator from Washington State, for their extraordinary
management of this bill.

I am pleased to report that the amendment I have called up and made
pending is actually a bipartisan initiative. It is cosponsored by my
colleague from Virginia, Senator Warner, and its purpose is to help
school officials to learn more easily about Federal programs and
incentives that are available to improve energy efficiency and thus
lower costs for our Nation's schools.

There are a number of Federal initiatives already available to
schools to help them become more energy efficient, but in many cases
schools are not taking full advantage of these programs. The reason for
that is because they are scattered across several agencies and are
difficult to access.

I want to make it clear to my colleagues that Senator Warner and I
are not proposing the creation of any new programs to help schools
become more energy efficient but rather to have more coordination and
to streamline those programs which already exist.

Our amendment would require the Department of Energy to be the leader
of these programs and help schools identify and navigate them, and that
in turn would be a great service to our Nation's schools.

As I said, by providing a streamlined coordinating structure, this
amendment would help schools navigate available Federal programs and
financing without authorizing new programs or funding. Decisions about
how best to meet the energy needs of their schools would appropriately
remain in the hands of States, school boards, and local officials.

Specifically, the amendment would establish the Department of Energy
as the lead agency for coordinating and disseminating information on
existing Federal energy efficiency programs and financing options
available to schools for initiating, developing, and financing energy
efficiency, renewable energy, and energy retrofitting projects.

The amendment would also require DOE to review existing Federal
programs--scattered at the Departments of Agriculture, Education,
Treasury, the IRS, and EPA--so schools know what is available.

It would also streamline communication and outreach to the States,
local education agencies, and schools and the development of a
mechanism for forming a peer-to-peer network to support the initiation
of the projects.

Finally, the amendment would require the Department of Energy to
provide technical assistance to help schools navigate the financing and
development of such projects to better ensure their success.

Assisting our nation's schools in navigating and tapping into
existing federal programs to lower energy usage and save money makes
good common sense.

I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to support the
Collins-Warner amendment No. 35.

I thank the Presiding Officer, and I yield the floor.

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Ms. COLLINS. Madam President, in President Obama's State of the Union
Address last week, he outlined an agenda focused on what he called
middle-class economics, which he described as providing Americans with
the ``tools they needed to go as far as their effort and their dreams
will take them.''

Our country thrives when hard-working Americans prosper. The
President was right to praise policies, such as the GI bill and Social
Security, that have helped us to do just that. That is why I am
perplexed at the President's proposal to tax the earnings of 529
college savings plan accounts. Rather than help American families meet
the onerous cost of a college education, this new tax would greatly
diminish the benefits of a law that is helping millions of parents plan
for their children's futures. The President's proposal undermines the
very values we should be promoting--families making sacrifices today in
order to better provide for their children tomorrow. The President's
plan would also lead to more student loan debt for many young people at
a time when concern over the level of debt is rising.

I would also note that the President has proposed eliminating the tax
deduction on interest on student loan payments.

One of the first questions new parents ask themselves is how they
will be able to pay for their children's education. For the past 14
years the 529 accounts have been an important part of the answer. They
have allowed parents to save for their children's education in tax-
advantaged accounts. Regular, affordable contributions made with after-
tax dollars from their paychecks grow over time. When college years
start, those savings and the earnings from their investments can be
withdrawn tax free for educational expenses. These small sacrifices
made from paycheck to paycheck can have an enormous impact, making real
the dream of higher education.

Parents know that receiving a college degree greatly improves their
child's future earnings potential. In fact, according to data compiled
by the U.S. Census Bureau in the year 2011, individuals with college
degrees earn approximately $1 million more over the course of their
careers than do workers with high school diplomas. Census data also
showed that people with higher levels of education are more likely to
be employed full time year-round. College graduates also tend to have
access to more specialized jobs that, in turn, yield higher wages.

Critics of the 529 plans assert that they disproportionately benefit
very high-income families who could afford to pay for college without
the tax-free growth in these dedicated savings accounts. Data from the
College Savings Foundation, however, counters this assertion. According
to the foundation, the average value in one of these 529 accounts is
$19,774. Additionally, the average contribution to accounts that
receive regular electronic contributions, such as those coming from
paycheck withholding, is just $175 a month. That is clearly more in
line with hard-working families trying to make ends meet than with
affluent families who enjoy significant disposable income.

My home State provides a great example of the benefits of the 529
law. After this law was passed in 2001, thousands of Maine families
established these accounts, but then came a powerful extra incentive.
In 2008 the Harold Alfond Foundation, which was established by one of
Maine's greatest philanthropists, created the Harold Alfond College
Challenge. This program now provides a $500 contribution to the college
savings account of every baby born in Maine. To date, some 23,000 Maine
families have used this generous gift to begin planning for the future
education of their children. As their parents' own contributions are
added to the account, the future becomes even brighter for these
children and for our State. As the children grow and make their own
contributions from afterschool and summer jobs, so too grows their
appreciation of financial responsibility and self-reliance.

The President says his proposal is driven in part by the need to
simplify the Tax Code. Our Tax Code certainly needs simplification, and
I hope that becomes a major accomplishment of this Congress. But the
question must be asked--how does creating a difference between the 529
contributions already made, which would remain untaxed, and new
contributions, which would be taxed, simplify anything? And perhaps
more to the point, in addition to simplification, our Tax Code needs
predictability.

Before I joined the Senate, I was employed at Husson University in
Bangor, ME--an outstanding institution that has a high percentage of
students who are the very first in their families to attend college.
Every day, I saw how hard parents and students worked, how many
sacrifices they made in order to make higher education a reality.

My experience at Husson is the chief reason why one of the very first
bills I introduced in this Chamber was the College Affordability and
Access Act. That bill called for creating tax-preferred education
savings account--the precursor to the Coverdell savings accounts--tax
incentives for employer-provided educational assistance, and a tax
deduction for student loan interest. Many provisions of that bill are
now law but would also be harmed by the President's proposal.

The 529 college savings plan program channels the determination that
I saw while working at Husson University and that exists throughout our
great country into a tangible benefit built upon the virtues of saving
and planning for the future. Changing the tax rules for the 529
accounts would break a promise to families across this country who are
working hard to save for their children's educations to help them
attain a brighter future.

I urge my colleagues to join me in working to make college more
accessible and more affordable and to save the 529 college savings plan
program.

I thank the sponsors and managers of this bill.

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