Norton on Floor Today on Big Hit D.C. Students Will Take if Student Loan Rate Doubles
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) went to the House floor with other members today to try and save the Stafford student loan interest rates from doubling to 6.8% on July 1st. In the District of Columbia alone, that doubling would affect 60,418 people, forcing them to pay a combined additional $49,329,945 in interest. Norton, who sponsored the bill creating the D.C. Tuition Assistance Grant program (DC TAG), is concerned. "That grant does not cover other vital costs like room and board, leaving many D.C. students in need of a loan," Norton said. "DCTAG has doubled the number of D.C. students who enroll in college, which I believe is why the District has more students affected by loan rates than in 16 states."
Norton, who is a tenured professor at the Georgetown University School of Law where she teaches one class per year, spoke on the House floor about the high cost of graduate professional education, which leads students to take out a large loan, in addition to the average $25,000 in debt they carry with them from their undergraduate loans.
Moreover, statistics show that 20- to 24-year-old Americans now have an unemployment rate over 13%, and 10% of all student loans are now delinquent. Democrats recognized that student loan debt is crippling young people. When they had the majority in Congress in 2007, they rolled the Stafford loan rate back to its current 3.4%, but that roll back expires July 1st. Norton and her fellow Democrats propose keeping that loan rate at 3.4%, and paying for it by ending tax breaks for big oil companies.
Republicans have refused to touch those unnecessary subsidies for big oil. They want to pay for keeping the student loan rate at 3.4% by getting rid of the Prevention and Public Health Fund, which helps cover the cost of screenings for breast and cervical cancer, childhood immunizations, and initiatives to help reduce birth defects.
Video of Norton's floor remarks is available on her website.
Published: April 27, 2012