In a floor debate with Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Senator Richard Burr (R-NC) objected to voting on the Harkin-Reid proposal (S.953) that would keep students interest rates low for the next two years.
After Senator Warren delivered her remarks yesterday afternoon, Senator Richard Burr objected to voting on the Democrats’ Student Loan bill, saying:
The fact is that what Republicans offered was a fix…What students want is predictability. What they want to do is understand how much is it going to cost them for their education. Not this year but over the life of having to pay it off. Well, you know what? We put a proposal on the table and it was routinely rejected, even though it was a solution, it was a fix.
The proposal that Senator Burr is talking about is far from a “fix” – in fact, numerous groups have been saying that it’s far better to let student loan interest rates double than to pass the bill that Senator Burr is offering, which could see student loan interest rates skyrocket up to 8.5%. Senator Burr is effectively standing in the way of students who will see their loan interest rates double on
July 1st unless Congress acts soon.
In response, Senator Warren said:
We have three different kinds of problems that we need to solve. We have the problem of a trillion dollars of outstanding student loan debt that is crushing our students. We have the problem of rising costs for college. We must deal with this. And we have the immediate problem of interest rates about to double for our students. We can fix one of those problems in the next two weeks. We could fix it today. We could fix it by unanimous consent right now. And then we could agree to sit down on a bipartisan basis, and we could work together to try to solve the larger problems. That's what our students are asking for.
To voice your support for the proposal that will help students now,
please write to your members of Congress and tell them to support the Harkin-Reid bill (S.953), which would keep rates low for another two years. Here’s the link to take action (please share widely) and #SaveOurStudents:
http://bit.ly/....
If you're from North Carolina, sign our petition and tell Senator Burr to quit standing in the way of students!(And share with your networks).
Cross-posted at I AM NOT A LOAN.