[Pages H6720-H6724]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

PROVIDING FOR CONGRESSIONAL DISAPPROVAL UNDER THE RULE SUBMITTED BY THE
DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION RELATING TO ``IMPROVING INCOME DRIVEN REPAYMENT
FOR THE WILLIAM D. FORD FEDERAL DIRECT LOAN PROGRAM AND THE FEDERAL
FAMILY EDUCATION LOAN (FFEL) PROGRAM''

Ms. FOXX. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 906, I call up
the joint resolution (H.J. Res. 88) providing for congressional
disapproval under chapter 8 of title 5, United States Code, of the rule
submitted by the Department of Education relating to ``Improving Income
Driven Repayment for the William D. Ford Federal Direct Loan Program
and the Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) Program'', and ask for its
immediate consideration.
The Clerk read the title of the joint resolution.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to House Resolution 906, the joint
resolution is considered read.
The text of the joint resolution is as follows:

H.J. Res. 88

Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled, That Congress
disapproves the rule submitted by the Department of Education
relating to ``Improving Income Driven Repayment for the
William D. Ford Federal Direct Loan Program and the Federal
Family Education Loan (FFEL) Program'' (88 Fed. Reg. 43820
(July 10, 2023)), and such rule shall have no force or
effect.

The SPEAKER pro tempore. The joint resolution shall be debatable for
1 hour equally divided and controlled by the chair and ranking minority
member of the Committee on Education and the Workforce or their
respective designees.
The gentlewoman from North Carolina (Ms. Foxx) and the gentleman from
Virginia (Mr. Scott) each will control 30 minutes. The Chair recognizes
the gentlewoman from North Carolina.

General Leave

Ms. FOXX. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may
have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include
extraneous material on the resolution under consideration.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentlewoman from North Carolina?
There was no objection.
Ms. FOXX. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.J. Res. 88, a Congressional
Review Act resolution authored by Representative McClain of Michigan,
that would bar the Biden administration from spending hundreds of
billions of dollars by executive fiat.
On June 30 of this year, mere hours after the Supreme Court
decapitated the administration's previous student loan scheme, the
Department of Education unveiled its so-called Savings on a Valuable
Education (SAVE) plan. Despite its deceptive name, this is without
question the most expensive regulation in our Nation's history.
Mr. Speaker, how bad will the damage be? The Congressional Budget
Office estimates this new IDR program will actually cost over $260
billion over the next 10 years, over $100 billion more than what the
Department was telling the American people.

[[Page H6721]]

{time} 0915

But wait. There is more. Outside experts estimate the cost to be as
much as $559 billion.
Clearly, this is not a repayment plan, and Democrats have not been
shy about their intentions for reshaping postsecondary education.
Indeed, Democrats couldn't get their socialist free college fantasy
through Congress, so they are attempting to shove it down the throats
of Americans through the loan program by executive fiat.
Mr. Speaker, millions of Americans are grasping their wallets at this
news--and rightfully so. They have already been pummeled by inflation
for months on end, and now they are staring down an avalanche of debt
this country cannot afford that will surely bury them if Congress
doesn't put an end to this madness.
H.J. Res. 88 offers us the opportunity to send a clear signal to this
administration that we will no longer tolerate a dictator in chief.
Here is the simple truth: Money cannot be printed out of thin air
without consequences. We should pass H.J. Res. 88 and put an end to
this reckless use of taxpayer dollars.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may
consume.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to H.J. Res. 88, the Congressional
Review Act on Saving on a Valuable Education plan.
Last August, the Department of Education launched the SAVE plan, a
new, generous, income-driven repayment, IDR, plan to significantly
lower payments for many low-and moderate-income borrowers.
Additionally, if borrowers make their full payment but their full
required payment is not enough to cover the accrued interest, the
government covers the rest of the interest. This means that the SAVE
plan eliminates the indignity of balances growing due to unpaid
interest.
The improved application allows borrowers to have their income
securely assessed through the Internal Revenue Service so that they
don't have to recertify their incomes every year.
Finally, repealing the SAVE plan would be extremely disruptive for
millions of Americans enrolled in this program.
In fact, the Department reported last month that 5.5 million
borrowers have already enrolled in the program, including nearly 18,000
borrowers in my district and about 8,600 in the district represented by
the gentlewoman from North Carolina. They are already enjoying the
improvements in the plan and the lower payments.
Mr. Speaker, we are responsible for strengthening support for those
seeking a college degree, not just because everyone should be forced to
get one, but because those who want a college degree should have access
to that opportunity.
As President Johnson noted when he signed the Higher Education Act
into law in 1965, he said that it meant that a high school senior
anywhere in this great land of ours can apply to any college or
university in any of the 50 States and not be turned away because the
family is poor.
Repealing the SAVE plan does nothing to make higher education more
affordable or accessible, and for that reason, Mr. Speaker, I oppose
the bill.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Ms. FOXX. Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentlewoman from
Michigan (Mrs. McClain).
Mrs. McCLAIN. Mr. Speaker, I thank Chairman Foxx for yielding time.
I want to remind the American people that every time someone says the
government pays, the government will pay, it is not the government
because the government doesn't produce anything.
When they refer to the government, they refer to you, the American
taxpayer, will pay. The government doesn't pay. The American taxpayer
pays.
I want to clear that up just to make sure every time we hear the
government will pay, that is really the hardworking American people.
The government is just choosing how they spend the American taxpayers'
money.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of this H.J. Res. 88, a Congressional
Review Act resolution of disapproval I introduced to block President
Biden's extreme student loan giveaway.
This new regulation, ironically dubbed the SAVE plan, is the most
expensive regulation in our Nation's history and is a backdoor attempt
to ram the administration's socialist free college fantasy down the
throats of hardworking taxpayers. It is their money.
According to the Penn Wharton Budget Model, this plan will cost as
much as $559 billion over the next decade, far exceeding the price tag
of the President's illegal student loan bailout ruled unconstitutional
by the Supreme Court.
Further, the Biden administration's plan would completely ruin our
postsecondary education financing system, putting higher costs on
taxpayers who never attended college in the first place.
I can't buy a house. I choose not to buy a house, but my neighbor
chooses to buy a house, and then I get to foot the bill. That is what
this administration is asking us to sign up for unconstitutionally.
Experts from across the political spectrum agree that Biden's income-
driven repayment plan makes repayment the exception instead of the
norm.
Just 2 in 10 undergraduate borrowers will fully repay their loans,
and the average student will pay roughly half of what is borrowed from
taxpayers in the first place.
Not only does this plan shift the cost of loans from the borrower,
the person who actually took out the loan, it shifts the cost to the
person who never took the loan out to begin with, the hardworking
taxpayer.
It also will make college more expensive. Under the President's plan,
colleges will continue to increase prices and force students to
actually have to borrow more that they don't need to repay, knowing
that this is ultimately the hardworking taxpayers who will foot
the bill.

The Congressional Budget Office even estimates that the SAVE plan
will increase student borrowing by $100 billion over the next decade.
Increasing costs by $100 billion--I am not sure what is saved.
In other words, the President is forcing through the most expensive
regulation in history, increasing prices to attend college--well, that
doesn't make any sense--and then telling taxpayers, many of them who
didn't attend college, or if they already did attend college, they get
to pay off their loans and somebody else's loans. They need to
subsidize the ones who went to college even if they didn't go to
college. This is unfair and unconstitutional.
The Biden administration is more concerned with scoring political
points with his base through executive rule than actually fixing the
student loan issue.
Republicans actually have a plan, one that is fiscally responsible
like the FAIR Act that I introduced with Representative Owens and
Chairman Foxx, that would actually fix the Democrat-created problems
with our loan repayment system.
President Biden has attempted to write off as much as $1 trillion of
student loans since taking office without congressional approval.
It is clear that President Biden and the unelected bureaucrats he has
put in power have no respect for the hardworking taxpayers that he is
forcing to foot the bill time and time again.
This administration has ignored the will of Congress and the Supreme
Court, I might add, in his radical free college approach.
The Supreme Court said enough. The Education and Workforce Committee
said enough. Now it's time for the House to say enough.
I strongly urge my colleagues to vote ``yes'' on H.J. Res. 88,
reaffirm Congress' constitutional power of the purse, and defend
taxpayers across the country.
Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as she may
consume to the gentlewoman from Georgia (Mrs. McBath).
Mrs. McBATH. Mr. Speaker, I thank Ranking Member Scott and his staff
for their work on this issue.
I rise today on behalf of the thousands of working families in my
district who are struggling under the burden of seemingly endless
student loan debt.

[[Page H6722]]

A college credential continues to be the surest path to economic
security, and we must help to make sure that every student, regardless
of their background or their ZIP Code, has the resources necessary to
achieve their dreams through education.
That means setting our students up for success, not confining them to
a lifetime of making payments that barely cover the interest on their
loans.
The American people who stand to be harmed by this bill are more than
just numbers. They are not just statistics. These are real live human
beings with real life experiences.
I would remind my colleague, Mrs. McClain of Michigan, that in her
district, there are at least 9,900 borrowers enrolled in the SAVE plan,
which will significantly lower their monthly payments.
If Republicans succeed and this bill undoes the income-driven
repayment plan, more than 5 million student loan borrowers enrolled in
the plan will see their monthly payments go up.
These are real people. They are nurses. They are engineers. They are
teachers with families and mortgages and groceries that they need to
buy who are going to lose the opportunity to pay off their loans in a
way that really fits their budgets.
The American people are tired of these empty and broken promises.
They are tired of being asked to give more and more of themselves while
it gets increasingly expensive to acquire the skills necessary just to
make a decent living.
Mr. Speaker, I encourage all of my colleagues to oppose this bill.
Ms. FOXX. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 30 seconds.
I think Mrs. McBath just made my argument for me. She said the
American people are tired of being asked to give more, more, more.
Well, in her district, she has almost 300,000 people without a
bachelor's degree, and the cost per person for what the Biden
administration is doing is $3,768.
In Representative Scott's district, 355,000 have no bachelor's
degree. They are being forced to cough up $3,768 for people who don't
want to pay their bills.
Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Virginia (Mr.
Good).
Mr. GOOD of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, I thank the chairwoman for the
time this morning.
I rise today in support of H.J. Res. 88, a resolution that will
nullify President Biden's irresponsible student loan repayment plan.
It is no secret that President Biden wants to borrow and spend
taxpayer dollars to force you and your children to pay for other
people's education.

Earlier this year, Biden vetoed my bipartisan resolution that
nullified his student loan transfer scheme.
Thankfully, the Supreme Court agreed with Congress that unilateral
Federal spending for outright forgiveness by the President is
unconstitutional.
However, the administration lost no time in devising yet another
scheme to transfer loan debt to taxpayers, this time under the guise of
repayment.
The Biden administration's new repayment scheme would permit even
more graduates to contribute even less money to loan payments.
These borrowers, who voluntarily took taxpayer money, will contribute
just 5 percent of their monthly income to the loan.
They can also be exempt from paying interest, and if enough time
passes, the loan will be forgiven altogether or actually paid for by
other Americans.
The Biden administration sells this scheme by promising it will
reduce many borrowers' loan payments to zero. However, the American
taxpayer will foot the bill.
I am reminded of October of 2020, the vote-buying scheme that was the
previous student loan transfer scheme, transferring that debt to other
Americans.
Policies like this undermine personal responsibility and teach a
generation to have little regard for the value of money.
Thanks to Bidenflation, the dollar has far less buying power today
than when he took office. Americans feel this at the grocery store, the
gas pump, and when paying their rent and utility bills.
Yet, this new scheme means that at least $276 billion in loans paid
out to students will never be returned to the Treasury as promised.

{time} 0930

As he overspends by $200 billion a month and drives us to $34
trillion in debt, the President may personally be insulated from the
impact of his reckless, wasteful borrowing and spending, but the
American people are certainly suffering from his harmful policies.
Many of my constituents paid their way through college or didn't go
to college because they couldn't afford it, and they should not have to
cover Biden's $276 billion in student loans.
As Dr. Foxx said just a moment ago, my district also has an example.
I have 293,000 individuals in my district who don't have a college
degree, and they should not have to pay their share, $3,800 each, for
this latest student loan transfer scheme by the President.
Over the last 3 years, our government has nearly destroyed the
student loan system by freezing payments, promising forgiveness, and
changing loan terms. It has to stop. Americans cannot afford it.
Mr. Speaker, we can help today by voting in favor of this
legislation.
Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may
consume.
Mr. Speaker, I remind my colleagues that in my colleague from
Virginia's district, there are over 11,000 borrowers already enrolled
in the SAVE Plan, which significantly lowered their monthly payments.
I will quote from a letter that we received from the AFT, the
American Federation of Teachers, which says, in part: ``For decades,
students have been told that a college education is one of the most
important vehicles to get ahead, but years of disinvestment and the
actions of predatory loan servicers drastically tightened the shackles
of debt, destroying students' budgets. And COVID-19 made that
predicament far worse. Fortunately, the Biden administration stepped up
with a plan to help student loan borrowers.''
Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record this letter from AFT and another
letter from the National Education Association.

AFT,

December 4, 2023.
House of Representatives,
Washington, DC.
Dear Representative: On behalf of the 1.7 million members
of the American Federation of Teachers, I strongly urge you
to reject H.J. Res. 88, a joint resolution providing for
congressional disapproval of the Saving on a Valuable
Education student loan repayment plan, the Biden
administration's improvements to income-driven repayment
plans.
The SAVE plan is the most affordable student loan repayment
plan ever--and is sorely needed.
For decades, students have been told that a college
education is one of the most important vehicles to get ahead,
but years of disinvestment and the actions of predatory loan
servicers drastically tightened the shackles of debt,
destroying students' budgets. And COVID-19 made that
predicament far worse. Fortunately, the Biden administration
stepped up with a plan to help student loan borrowers.
Even as some members of Congress and outside groups have
moved to undermine efforts to achieve a more permanent
solution for the broken student loan system and its wide-
ranging impacts, and have refused to move forward on bold
solutions to make college more affordable on the front end,
like free college, the president has recognized that there
must be a relief valve for those drowning in student loan
debt. We fully support the administration doing what is in
its power and building on the tool of income-driven repayment
to create the SAVE plan.
This plan is the result of a thorough negotiated rulemaking
process and of the administration's commitment to helping
student loan borrowers who've had their lives derailed by
overwhelming student debt. Congress should be building on the
Biden administration's actions to make student loans
affordable, not undermining those actions.
The SAVE plan will ensure that borrowers never see their
balance grow because of accruing interest, as long as they
keep up with their required payments; this is particularly
significant for public service workers, who all too often
nervously watch their balance balloon while working toward
Public Service Loan Forgiveness, even as they work hard to
make their monthly payments.
The plan also cuts payments on undergraduate loans in half
(from 10 percent to 5 percent of a borrower's discretionary
income), updates the formula for determining a borrower's
discretionary income (to 225 percent of the federal poverty
guidelines based on family size), and provides a shorter time
to earn forgiveness (10-24 years) for those borrowers who've
carried low-balance loans for at least a decade.

[[Page H6723]]

Tens of millions of families are struggling under the yoke
of $1.7 trillion in student debt, and Congress and the
administration must do all they can to provide a lifeline to
those drowning in student loans. The SAVE plan is an
important piece of that relief, which we fully support. This
resolution will show Americans which members of Congress are
going out of their way to support loading them up with
additional student debt. I urge you to reject this callous
resolution.
Sincerely,
Randi Weingarten,
President, American Federation of Teachers.

December 5, 2023.
Hon. Robert C. Scott,
House of Representatives,
Washington, DC.
Dear Congressman Scott: On behalf of the National Education
Association's 3 million members and the 50 million students
they teach and support in public schools and colleges, we
urge you to vote NO on H.J. Res. 88, as the Senate has
already done. The resolution would use the Congressional
Review Act to overturn the Biden-Harris Administration's new
rule implementing the Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE)
Plan for federal student loan borrowers. Votes on this issue
may be included in the NEA Report Card for the 118th
Congress.
Millions of borrowers--many of whom are facing significant
financial struggles--are coping with their first student
bills since the COVID-19 pandemic. The Consumer Financial
Protection Bureau found that about 1 in 5 borrowers has risk
factors that suggest they will struggle with the resumption
of payments. Income-driven repayment (IDR) plans are a key
safety net; borrowers enrolled in IDR plans default at much
lower rates than those in non-IDR plans. However, for too
many borrowers, these plans were not working well enough to
protect them from hardship. Many borrowers struggled to
navigate the bureaucratic hurdles of enrolling in and staying
enrolled in a plan. Even for those who were enrolled, their
monthly payments were often too high. In addition, due to
interest accrual, many borrowers watched their balances
balloon despite making on-time payments for years.
NEA's 2021 report on student loan debt found that no
segment of the educator workforce is spared the burden of
student loan debt. Four out of 10 educators said struggling
to pay off their loans and financial worries about the loans
were negatively affecting their physical, mental, and
emotional well-being.
The Biden-Harris administration created the SAVE Plan to
provide meaningful financial relief to borrowers and help
ease their transition back to repayment. More than 4 million
borrowers are already enrolled and tens of millions more,
including educators, are eligible. The SAVE Plan is crucial
for educators and other public sector workers, because being
enrolled in an IDR is an essential requirement for those
seeking Public Service Loan Forgiveness.
The SAVE Plan targets benefits to low- and moderate-income
borrowers by lowering their monthly loan payments and
protecting more of their income--up to 225 percent of the
federal poverty level--to enable them to better cover basic
needs such as food, housing, and child care. It also ensures
that borrowers never see their balance grow as long as they
keep up with their required payments. The White House
estimates this change will mean that 85 percent of community
college borrowers will be debt-free within 10 years. That
would not only improve the lives and financial future of the
borrowers themselves; it has the potential to change the
trajectory for their entire families.
Most Americans--even those without student loans--
understand the severity of the student debt crisis and how it
affects those they love. Please vote NO on H.J. Res. 88 and
support the administration's efforts to protect millions of
current and future borrowers from financial harm.
Sincerely,

Marc Egan,

Director of Government Relations,
National Education Association.

Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Ms. FOXX. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Texas
(Mr. Williams).
Mr. WILLIAMS of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.J.
Res. 88, which I am a cosponsor of.
This Congressional Review Act would stop President Biden's radical
SAVE Plan that alters the income-driven repayment program to redefine
the vast majority of borrowers as financially distressed.
It saves nothing. In fact, in my business, it is called false
advertising, and costing the taxpayer an estimated $559 billion is
effectively a loan cancellation program in disguise.
Who is talking about the lenders? Who is talking about the people who
loaned the money, the people of America?
In June, President Biden's unconstitutional plan to cancel
outstanding loan debt was struck down by the Supreme Court, which
stated that the authority to cancel student loans lies with Congress
and Congress only, not with President Biden.
This latest plan by President Biden is yet another attempt to ignore
the Supreme Court and sidestep Congress even after members of his own
party have admitted the executive branch lacks the authority to do so.
Yesterday, the President announced that his administration approved
another $4.8 billion in student loan cancellation, bringing the current
total to over $130 billion, basically sponsoring deadbeats.
This is a slap in the face to the taxpayer, forcing the 87 percent of
Americans who do not hold any Federal student loan debt and who have
made sound financial decisions to foot the bill for those unwilling to
pay off the debt they chose to rack up.
What this administration refuses to admit to the American people is
that this is not debt cancellation or debt forgiveness but a shift in
responsibility from the borrowers to the pocketbooks of hardworking
families.
In Texas, where I come from, a deal is a deal. You pay your debt
back, and a handshake still works.
Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to vote in favor of H.J. Res. 88
and put a stop to this administration's unlawful attack on the American
taxpayer. In God We Trust.
Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may
consume.
Mr. Speaker, I remind my colleagues that in the gentleman from Texas'
district, there are over 8,000 borrowers already enrolled in the SAVE
Plan. They are already saving money, and the passage of this resolution
would increase their monthly payments.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Ms. FOXX. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Texas
(Mr. Pfluger).
Mr. PFLUGER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the chairwoman for her leadership
on this.
I rise in strong support of H.J. Res. 88 to block President Biden's
taxpayer-funded student loan bailout.
Here we go again. If you don't succeed, and the Supreme Court says it
is not constitutional, well, let's find another way, find another
mechanism.
That is exactly what we are facing today.
We are standing in the gap, Mr. Speaker. This rule unjustly imposes
an excessive burden on hardworking American taxpayers, who should not
be forced to shoulder the responsibility for student debt that is not
their own.
It is not a coincidence that on the same day the Supreme Court found
the Biden administration's first attempt at loan forgiveness
unconstitutional, the Department of Education announced this final rule
to allow a majority of bachelor's degree student loan borrowers to
avoid paying back even the principal on their loans.
Let me be clear: This rule does not offer genuine debt forgiveness.
Instead, it shifts the weight of $559 billion in Federal student loans
onto the shoulders of almost 90 percent of Americans who don't have
those student loans. This includes individuals who may earn
significantly less than those who took out the loans in the first
place.
Rather than addressing the root causes of a student loan debt crisis,
the administration would rather transfer the financial burden onto
taxpayers, exacerbating our ongoing issues with inflation and
contributing further to our staggering $33 trillion of national debt.
This approach is not only flawed but fundamentally unfair to those who
opted not to attend college, who diligently paid their own way through
school, or who have already successfully paid off their own student
loans.
This is what the White House is pushing. By the way, they are also
pushing dollars into institutions like Harvard, Penn, and other schools
where, as we found out this week, the presidents can't even admit there
are anti-Semitic, anti-Jewish hatred messages in their own institutions
happening. They can't even admit it.
As a Texan, I can confidently tell you that no hardworking
constituent in my district wants to pay for any degree at Harvard using
taxpayer money, certainly not ours. By the way, until the presidents of
those universities acknowledge the anti-Jewish messages and hatred that
has occurred on their college campuses, I urge Congress not to send
another dollar of Federal money to any of those institutions.
House Republicans are blocking the Biden administration's illogical
and

[[Page H6724]]

unreasonable student bailout program, and I urge my colleagues to join
me in this effort.
Let's be clear: It is not fair and not American, and the Supreme
Court has said it is unconstitutional that Americans should bear the
burden of student loans that they did not incur themselves.
Mr. Speaker, for that reason, I urge a strong stance on this, and I
urge my colleagues to protect the hard-earned dollars of American
taxpayers and prevent further financial strain.
Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my
time.
Mr. Speaker, I remind my colleagues that in the gentleman from Texas'
district, over 6,600 borrowers have already enrolled in the SAVE Plan.
They are already saving money, and the passage of this legislation
would significantly increase their payments.
Mr. Speaker, earlier this year, my Republican colleagues clamored and
complained about President Biden's plan to provide debt relief for
millions of borrowers. Now, House Republicans are trying to saddle
millions of Americans and future borrowers with more debt by repealing
the SAVE Plan, which has already significantly lowered monthly payments
for many low- and middle-income borrowers.
Repealing the SAVE Plan would cause significant disruption, but that
seems to be the theme for my colleagues in this Congress.
Mr. Speaker, it is imperative and important to know how we got into
the student loan crisis. It was created because the buying power of the
Pell grant has fallen dramatically over the years. Originally, it
covered about 80 percent of the cost of the tuition, room and board at
a State college. Now, it covers less than 30 percent. All of that cost
has been shifted over to the students.
The people who are debating today went to college when the Pell grant
covered 80 percent, and you didn't have to take out a student loan. Now
that we have shifted the cost to students, that is where the student
loan problem comes from.
The States are supporting a significantly lower portion, covering a
lower portion of the cost of the college--again, putting more of the
burden on students.
We should be covering more of a percentage for students, and this is
one of the ways to do that. By helping them pay their student loans, we
can help pay their way through college.
We should pass proposals to make college more affordable for current
and future students, not less. That is what the Biden administration
has been doing.
We have heard complaints about the shift of this burden onto the
taxpayer. I will tell you that we didn't hear any of that during the
debate on the PPP loans, where businessmen got millions of dollars of
PPP loans with handshakes and everything else and didn't have to pay
them back. We didn't hear any complaints about that, about the people
who didn't own businesses. Yet, when a student tries to get an
education, all of a sudden, we can't help them pay their loans.
We should be passing proposals to make college more affordable for
these students and future students, yet here we are, wasting our time
with passing this resolution. Everybody knows this isn't going
anywhere.
In fact, the Senate last month took up a similar proposal, and it
didn't pass. Whatever happens here, it is not going to pass the Senate,
and the President is going to veto it anyway.
Again, the bottom line is that we are responsible for strengthening
the support for those seeking a college degree, not because everybody
should be forced to get one but because those who want a college
education and to move up in life should be able to have access to that
opportunity, not just the privileged few that can write the $50,000 a
year checks.
Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to oppose H.J. Res. 88, and I yield
back the balance of my time.
Ms. FOXX. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.
Mr. Speaker, the Biden administration knows that its so-called SAVE
Plan is illegal, yet it has no problem putting its foot on the gas
pedal.
As my colleague has admitted, this is helping them pay their way
through college, which is what we have been saying. This is a radical
plan by the Biden administration to pay for college expenses.
Let's make one thing perfectly clear: The so-called SAVE Plan is the
administration's game of ruling by executive decree and pinning the tab
on the taxpayer. The Biden administration is transferring debt from
those who willingly took it out to those who didn't have a chance to go
to college. This is unfair.
America's student loan system is broken, and this reckless,
inflationary, and illegal expansion of executive authority will all but
ensure it is doomed beyond repair.
This plan isn't about helping borrowers, and it sure isn't protecting
taxpayers. It is about an upcoming election and an administration dead
set on using the executive pen to reshape our country. That is the
stone-cold truth of this matter.
Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to vote ``yes'' on H.J. Res. 88,
and I yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. All time for debate has expired.
Pursuant to House Resolution 906, the previous question is ordered.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the engrossment and third
reading of the joint resolution.
The joint resolution was ordered to be engrossed and read a third
time, and was read the third time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on passage of the joint
resolution.
The question was taken; and the Speaker pro tempore announced that
the ayes appeared to have it.
Ms. FOXX. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.
The yeas and nays were ordered.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX, further
proceedings on this question will be postponed.

____________________