Richard Durbin

Mr. DURBIN

Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from New Jersey (Mr. Booker), the Senator from California (Ms. Harris), the Senator from Vermont (Mr. Sanders), and the Senator from Massachusetts (Ms. Warren) are necessarily absent.

Mr. DURBIN

Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from New Jersey (Mr. Booker), the Senator from California (Ms. Harris), the Senator from Vermont (Mr. Sanders), and the Senator from Massachusetts (Ms. Warren) are necessarily absent.

Mr. DURBIN

Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, a few years ago, a woman who works in my office in Chicago--who actually cleans up the office in the evenings-- was so excited when she learned that her daughter had been accepted to college. It was a dream come true for a woman who had immigrated to the United States, taken some of the hardest, most menial manual jobs in the hopes that her daughter, one day, would have a better life. She sat down with my chief of staff in Chicago to tell her about the details, and immediately, we knew there was much more to the story. Her daughter had been accepted not just to another college or university; she had been accepted to a for-profit college in the Chicagoland area. The for-profit colleges and universities are notorious. The numbers tell the story, two separate numbers: 9 percent of all postsecondary students go attend for-profit colleges and universities--University of Phoenix, DeVry, very well-known names--9 percent of students go to those schools, but 33 percent of all of the federal student loan defaults are students from for-profit colleges and universities. Why? Why is this one category of higher education so notorious for students starting and ending up deeply in debt to the point where they cannot pay it back? Well, the reasons are simple and very obvious. They overcharge the students, and they undereducate them. They make promises that are wild and cannot be kept. They give them courses of doubtful value and do not tell them that any credits that they have earned at these for-profit schools cannot be transferred to city colleges, community colleges, or universities. So the students are stuck. At some point, some will quit piling on the debt and just basically walk away. All the promises and all the jobs and careers that were supposed to come from this are never going to materialize. It is a classic fraud, and sadly, our government is part of that fraud. You see, we recognize the accreditation of those schools. We tell that cleaning lady and her family that these are good schools and universities. The Federal Government does that and offers Federal loans to these students to go to these schools. Is it any wonder that the students and their families think they are doing the right thing for their future? The Federal Government gave a stamp of approval. Well, what happens when those schools reach the end of the line? What happens when those same for-profit colleges and universities go bankrupt? The students are in a terrible position, deeply in debt with courses that are meaningless, with their lives compromised, and nowhere to turn. We decided long ago to create an opportunity for these students to get out of this dilemma--one that we share in by accrediting these schools--something called the ``borrower defense,'' which allows these students, if they were defrauded, to discharge their federal student loans and get on with their lives. Today, hundreds of thousands of students--who were defrauded by their for-profit colleges--are desperately waiting for Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos to discharge their Federal student loans under a provision in Federal law known as borrower defense. Congress created the borrower defense provision to ensure students' lives are not ruined by their schools' misconduct and deception. In 2014, for-profit Corinthian Colleges collapsed. It left more than 70,000 students nationwide with worthless credits they could not transfer and mounds of student debt. The students had been lured into those Corinthian schools with false promises, inflated placement rates and income projections. We know that for a fact. We have the data to show they were lying to the students about what graduation from Corinthian could mean in their lives. Over the last 5 or 6 years, nearly every other major for-profit college, nearly every one of these have faced Federal or State lawsuits and investigations for predatory practices similar to Corinthian Colleges. The result has been hundreds of thousands of defrauded students across America who are seeking discharges to which we say they are entitled under Federal law. Secretary Betsy DeVos has allowed more than 200,000 borrower defense applications to pile up at the Department, nearly 11,000 from my own State of Illinois. But listen to this, Secretary DeVos has not approved a single claim for more than a year, 200,000 applications stacking up at the Department of Education, not one approved. So who are some of these borrowers that are languishing? What is their story? Let me tell you about two of them. One is Jessica from Tucson, AZ. Jessica attended the Art Institute of Tucson from 2009 to 2012. It was owned by the failed for-profit Education Management Corporation, EDMC. Heartbreakingly, Jessica says: ``I have experienced unbelievable amounts of stress and depression due to this situation. I have been placed on anti-depressants and anti- anxiety medication over the years and been through therapy . . . I have self-harmed and contemplated suicide, because I feel so trapped and unable to recover or move forward. I have a general feeling of worthlessness, because I feel like my potential has been squandered.'' She went to the Art Institute of Tucson, and her experience has led her to this desperate situation. She tried to harm herself. Instead of a bright future, she is left with a mountain of debt and nothing to show for it but deep financial and psychological pain. She says, ``Every aspect of her life has been affected.'' And so, is Secretary Betsy DeVos trying to help Jessica? No. Secretary DeVos is making it worse. Jessica submitted her borrower defense application almost 4 years ago in 2016. She has waited for this period of time to hear anything from the Department of Education. What is their excuse? I mean, if someone writes a letter to my office and does not get a reply and they come back to me and say, Are you going to answer this, Durbin, we send a reply. We try to do it promptly with everybody. How can Secretary DeVos be holding these things up for years, while the students see the mountain of debt growing? As she waits, Jessica's loans are in forbearance, where they continue to gather interest, meaning that the total amount owed continues to grow. She is just 1 of 4,518 borrowers from Arizona who are stuck waiting for Secretary DeVos to use the authority that Congress gave her to discharge fraudulent loans I also want to tell you about Jonathan from Colorado--3,600 defrauded borrowers are waiting for relief. Jonathan from Westminster, CO, attended DeVry University--sadly a Chicago-based for-profit school-- studying to be an electronics engineer. He is a father and a husband who was trying to provide more for his family, so he took out student loans that sounded like an investment. He currently owes almost $100,000 in outstanding Federal student loans from attending DeVry, twice what he was told his education would cost. Of his debt, Jonathan says, ``My credit has been destroyed. I couldn't repay these loans in two lifetimes, even if my degree had any value to employers.'' Sadly, it doesn't. Employers don't even recognize his degree. Jonathan says: My student loans are the millstone around my family. The debt I owe has made my kids not want to attend college at all. They see no value in it; their own father has an engineering degree but he can't get hired anywhere because his school was a scam. Those are the words of Jonathan from Colorado. So not only has this fraudulent school taken away his future by burdening him with a worthless degree and piles of debt; in many ways, it affects his children's future. Jonathan applied for a borrower defense discharge in 2017, nearly 3 years ago. He has been waiting to hear from Secretary Betsy DeVos. Secretary DeVos's failure to provide him with relief, he says, ``has caused [him] to lose faith that the government will actually protect students like [him].'' Secretary DeVos has cruelly ignored defrauded borrowers like Jessica and Jonathan, but what is more is that she is trying to make it almost impossible for future borrowers like them to secure the relief that Congress intended by rewriting the rules. In August, Secretary DeVos released a new version of the borrower defense rule that places unreasonable burdens on borrowers to attain relief. The result is that the Department estimates the DeVos rule will deny nearly $11 billion in relief to borrowers compared to the current rule. In September, I introduced a resolution in the Senate to overturn the DeVos borrower defense rule. Forty-two of my colleagues have joined me in cosponsoring it. I plan to bring the resolution to a vote on the Senate floor where it only needs a simple majority to pass. At that time, my colleagues on both sides of the aisle will have a choice: Will they stand with Secretary DeVos's actions--or, I should say, lack of actions for 3 or 4 years--will they deny help to defrauded students, or will they stand with young people like Jessica and Jonathan, trying to get their lives back together and trying to get Congress to implement the one law it passed that could help them? It is a choice that seems pretty easy for most American people when they hear this scenario described to them. A recent opinion piece in the Anchorage Daily News criticized Secretary DeVos for siding with ``for-profit colleges that have defrauded students'' and ``illegally [denying] student loan debt relief to thousands of students.'' Even in Alaska, hundreds of borrowers are waiting for borrower defense discharges. Nationally, Americans agree that these defrauded borrowers deserve relief. In a 2016 New America poll, 78 percent of Americans said that students should have their Federal student loan debt discharged if their school deceived them. That is pretty basic, isn't it? If you were cheated, you ought to be taken care of. When you break the numbers down by party, 87 percent of Democrats and 71 percent of Republicans--vast majorities--supported relief for these students. So when it comes time to vote on my resolution to overturn the DeVos borrower defense rule denying relief to defrauded borrowers, I hope my colleagues will stand with students and the American people. I yield the floor.

Mr. DURBIN

Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. DURBIN

Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from Colorado (Mr. Bennet), the Senator from New Jersey (Mr. Booker), the Senator from New York (Mrs. Gillibrand), the Senator from California (Ms. Harris), the Senator from Minnesota (Ms. Klobuchar), the Senator from Vermont (Mr. Sanders), the Senator from Massachusetts (Ms. Warren), and the Senator from Rhode Island (Mr. Whitehouse) are necessarily absent.

Mr. DURBIN

Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from New Jersey (Mr. Booker), the Senator from New York (Mrs. Gillibrand), the Senator from California (Ms. Harris), the Senator from Minnesota (Ms. Klobuchar), the Senator from Vermont (Mr. Sanders), the Senator from Massachusetts (Ms. Warren), and the Senator from Rhode Island (Mr. Whitehouse) are necessarily absent.

Mr. DURBIN

Mr. DURBIN. Madam President, I am honored to stand and join tributes to Johnny Isakson. A lawyer from Springfield once gave a pretty famous speech, and it was only 275 words long. This speech may be a little longer, but I don't believe a speech has to be eternal to be immortal. So I will try, in just a few words, to say what I feel in my heart this moment as you are preparing to leave the U.S. Senate. Your heart is good, and I know that because I saw something on the floor of the Senate today. Your relationship and your comments about your friend John Lewis were so genuine and so heartfelt, and the fact that you would point to a photograph taken of the two of you embracing one another as one of the signature photographs of your career in public service tells me a lot about you, Johnny Isakson. Our lives have been led along the same path. We know how many changes there have been in America during the course of our lives and how many more we need to be even better in the future. John Lewis was one of the real leaders in our Nation who led us all to look very closely at the issue of race and the issue of civil rights. It was painful, many times unpopular. For his heroic work, he was given the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and he deserved it more than anyone I can think of. The fact that he counts you as a friend and comes over here for your farewell address and that you would embrace him and announce that to the United States and the world, tells me your heart is good, Johnny Isakson. That simple experience tells me that. The other thing I know is that your word is good. It was 2 years ago when we had a debate on the floor of the Senate about a measure that means quite a bit to me, the Dream Act--the idea that young immigrants brought to this country would have a chance to become part of America's future. I worked on that legislation for 19 years, so I remember when people voted with me on the Dream Act, and you voted with me. It wasn't easy 2 years ago. Immigration was not a popular thing, but you stood up, and when I went to you afterward and thanked you, you said it was the right thing to do. I will never forget that. It told me that your word is good, and your heart is good. And, finally, let me tell you, you have struggled with affliction, illness, and you have done most of it very openly so that people with similar challenges in life can watch as you live through this challenging experience. All of us can remember moments here when you were willing yourself to come to this floor, to that chair, to cast your vote. I have never seen courage like that. Your determination will stick with me forever. Now you are going to have some time for yourself with your family, Dianne, and others and have some relaxing time together, but I am going to miss you. I am going to miss you as a special colleague whose heart was right, whose word is good, and his courage was there for all of us to see. Thanks, Johnny. I wish you the best.

Mr. DURBIN

Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from New Jersey (Mr. Booker), the Senator from California (Ms. Harris), the Senator from Minnesota (Ms. Klobuchar), the Senator from Vermont (Mr. Sanders), and the Senator from Massachusetts (Ms. Warren) are necessarily absent.

Mr. DURBIN

Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from New Jersey (Mr. Booker), the Senator from California (Ms. Harris), the Senator from Minnesota (Ms. Klobuchar), the Senator from Vermont (Mr. Sanders), and the Senator from Massachusetts (Ms. Warren) are necessarily absent.

Mr. DURBIN

Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from New Jersey (Mr. Booker), the Senator from California (Ms. Harris), the Senator from Minnesota (Ms. Klobuchar), the Senator from Vermont (Mr. Sanders), and the Senator from Massachusetts (Ms. Warren) are necessarily absent.

Mr. DURBIN

Mr. DURBIN. Madam President, nearly one-quarter of Illinois' workforce will see the benefit of a $15 an our minimum wage by 2025. Also, the State of Illinois is about to embark on a massive $45 billion infrastructure modernization and construction plan. Simply put, these are life-changing achievements. And behind both is Michael Carrigan. Since 2010, Mike Carrigan has served as the president of the Illinois AFL-CIO, fighting for working families across the State. At the end of the year, Mike is retiring from his decades' long service to Illinois' labor unions and its nearly 900,000 members. In the fall of 2011, Mike was my guest for then-President Obama's joint session of Congress focusing on the economy. Mike had been an authority on creating jobs and putting people back to work for years so the invitation made perfect sense. And Mike was there to applaud a President he had worked hard to elect. Michael Carrigan was born in Kankakee, IL, and grew up in Kankakee County. After graduating from MacMurray College in Jacksonville and completing a 4-year apprenticeship in Decatur, he became a journeyman electrician. Mike installed wiring at construction sites for everything from nuclear powerplants to fast-food restaurants. Later, he became the business manager and financial secretary for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 146 in Decatur. In 1995, Mike ran for the city council in Decatur and won. Four years later, Margaret Blackshere chose Mike to be her running mate in an historic bid for the leadership of the Illinois AFL-CIO. Margaret was the first woman to serve as president of the labor organization, and they were the right people for the jobs at the right time. Under the leadership of Margaret and Mike, the AFL-CIO led the fight to raise the State's minimum wage multiple times, developed infrastructure plans, and strengthened labor union membership in Illinois. They brought together diverse groups and built coalitions to improve the lives of working families in Illinois, from infrastructure to healthcare. When Margaret stepped away from her post in 2007, Mike seamlessly continued the hard work of leading Illinois AFL-CIO. In 2008, the mayor of Decatur resigned abruptly, and the city council picked Mike to finish the term. Like his work in labor, Mike took to his temporary role with enthusiasm. He served for 10 months, providing steady leadership, before returning full time to the AFL-CIO. In 2015, a newly elected Republican Governor purposely chose Mike's hometown of Decatur to launch a campaign to break Illinois unions with right to work laws. Mike Carrigan did not back away. Mike fought then- Governor Rauner's efforts to weaken workers' rights in every corner of our State. From courtrooms to the picket line, Mike took the fight to Rauner. In 2018, the voters of Illinois retired Bruce Rauner. Within 6 months, Mike had worked behind the scenes to ensure that State workers had a new contract under our new Governor, J.B. Pritzker. After 20 years of service to the Illinois AFL-CIO, Mike is retiring. Thanks to his hard work and dedication, the outlook for Illinois labor is bright. Even in retirement, I know Mike will keep busy and will only be a phone call away. I look forward to catching another Illini/Mizzou Braggin' Rights basketball game with Mike. And his holiday dinner is a favorite of the season for my wife, Loretta, and me. I am excited to see what Mike does next and I am proud to call him a friend. (At the request of Mr. Schumer, the following statement was ordered to be printed in the Record).

Mr. DURBIN

Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from New Jersey (Mr. Booker), the Senator from California (Ms. Harris), the Senator from Minnesota (Ms. Klobuchar), the Senator from Vermont (Mr. Sanders), and the Senator from Massachusetts (Ms. Warren) are necessarily absent.

Mr. DURBIN

Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from Colorado (Mr. Bennet), the Senator from New Jersey (Mr. Booker), the Senator from New York (Mrs. Gillibrand), the Senator from California (Ms. Harris), the Senator from Alabama (Mr. Jones), the Senator from Minnesota (Ms. Klobuchar), the Senator from Vermont (Mr. Sanders), the Senator from Massachusetts (Ms. Warren), and the Senator from Rhode Island (Mr. Whitehouse) are necessarily absent.

Mr. DURBIN

Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from Colorado (Mr. Bennet), the Senator from New Jersey (Mr. Booker), the Senator from New York (Mrs. Gillibrand), the Senator from California (Ms. Harris), the Senator from Alabama (Mr. Jones), the Senator from Minnesota (Ms. Klobuchar), the Senator from Vermont (Mr. Sanders), the Senator from Massachusetts (Ms. Warren), the Senator from Rhode Island (Mr. Whitehouse), are necessarily absent.

Mr. DURBIN

Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from New Jersey (Mr. Booker), the Senator from California (Ms. Harris), the Senator from Minnesota (Ms. Klobuchar), the Senator from Vermont (Mr. Sanders), and the Senator from Massachusetts (Ms. Warren) are necessarily absent.

Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from New Jersey (Mr. Booker), the Senator from California (Ms. Harris), the Senator from Minnesota (Ms. Klobuchar), the Senator from Vermont (Mr. Sanders), and the Senator from Massachusetts (Ms. Warren) are necessarily absent.

Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from New Jersey (Mr. Booker), the Senator from California (Ms. Harris), the Senator from Minnesota (Ms. Klobuchar), the Senator from Vermont (Mr. Sanders), and the Senator from Massachusetts (Ms. Warren) are necessarily absent.

Mr. DURBIN

Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from New Jersey (Mr. Booker), the Senator from California (Ms. Harris), the Senator from Minnesota (Ms. Klobuchar), the Senator from Vermont (Mr. Sanders), and the Senator from Massachusetts (Ms. Warren) are necessarily absent.

Mr. DURBIN

Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. DURBIN

Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, there are various options available for graduates of high schools across the United States. Some of them choose to go to college or university, but even making that choice gives you a lot of options. There are basically two categories of schools, though, that I want to address in this statement this morning. One category is called for- profit colleges and universities, and the other is the traditional not- for-profit colleges and universities, which would include your community colleges and public universities and many not-for-profit, private universities. But I want to focus this morning on the for-profit colleges and universities in the United States. People sometimes can't make the distinction between which is which. Some of the big names in the for- profit industry include the University of Phoenix. That is one you probably heard of. DeVry University is another one you might have heard of. There are some defining characteristics of these schools. They, of course, are in business to make money, and they have a different economic model than many of the other universities. I have met the CEOs of for-profit colleges and universities and found that in some cases they have limited or no experience when it comes to education. They are investors. They are business people. The idea of education is a secondary part of why they were chosen. There is an important statistic--in fact, two statistics--that I want to preface my remarks with, and these will be on the final, I might add, for those who are following this statement. The numbers 9 and 33--9 and 33. Why are they important? Nine percent of postsecondary students go to for-profit colleges and universities--9 percent--but 33 percent of all the federal student loan defaults in the United States are students from for-profit colleges and universities--9 percent of the students, 33 percent of federal student loan defaults. What is going on here? Well, what is happening here, unfortunately, is that many of these students are signing up for the for-profit schools that they think are legitimate colleges and universities, and, frankly, they are dramatically overcharging them. Every analysis we have gone through says that the tuition at these for-profit schools far exceeds what students are likely to pay, certainly, in a community college and in the case of many public colleges and universities. So they have a big tuition bill to start with, and they have poor results. What kind of results? Students graduate believing that they are being trained or educated to do a certain profession, and then they find out that they can't do the job or they don't qualify for the job, or they get so deeply in debt on the way to graduating, they give up and quit-- the worst of all possible outcomes. So that is the preface on these for-profit colleges and universities. I have come to this floor many times over the years to talk about this industry because we treat it in the eyes of the public like higher education across the board, and yet it is much, much different. It is for profit as opposed to not for profit, and, frankly, the results of that education leave a lot to be desired. It has been more than 5 years since the for-profit giant Corinthian College collapsed. Their economic model didn't work. For years, Corinthian had lied, inflating its job placement rates and engaging in high-pressure tactics to lure students into enrolling, often leaving them with massive student loan debt and a diploma that didn't work to find a job. But Corinthian was not unique. As I have said many times, it turned out to be the canary in the coal mine. Since Corinthian College, we have seen the collapse of several other major predatory for-profit colleges and universities. They include ITT Tech, Westwood, Education Corporation of America, and Dream Center. Nearly every major for-profit college company has been the subject of extensive investigations and lawsuits for unfair and deceptive practices similar to Corinthian College. Check with the attorney general of your home State about that for- profit college and university, and, almost without fail, you will find that they have been investigated for misleading and deceiving the students who go to school at their universities. I have long said that we shouldn't leave the students holding the bag for the misdeeds of these institutions because, you see, we are complicit. The Federal Government is part of the problem. How do these schools reach the point where you can take out a Federal student loan to attend? We accredit them. We recognize their accreditation. We tell the world and the families and the students that these are legitimate schools. Depending on that, these students who sign up for a better experience, are often misled, deceived, and overcharged. Ultimately, a third of them are in default on their student loans because they can't pay them back. There is a provision in the Higher Education Act known as borrower defense. It gives the students the right to have their Federal student loans discharged by the Secretary of Education if they have been defrauded or subject to deception by these schools. After Corinthian's collapse, this little known, rarely used provision in the law became a hot topic. All of a sudden, here were large numbers of students who had been defrauded and deceived by Corinthian College and went deeply into debt, and now the college goes out of business. It turns out that most of the hours they took can't be transferred anywhere. It is worthless. They were defrauded, start to finish, and now they are left holding the student loan bag. Thousands of Corinthian students and other borrowers, mostly from for-profit colleges, began applying for this borrower defense discharge from the U.S. Department of Education. It was in the law. It led the Obama administration to undertake a new rulemaking to update the borrower defense regulation, which dated back to 1994, and to create a standard process for dealing with the inundation and to attempt to prevent future collapses. Soon after taking office, Secretary Betsy DeVos and the Trump administration delayed implementation of the Obama rule, despite the Department's own inspector general saying that implementing the rule would ``avoid costs to students and taxpayers that result from school closures.'' Secretary DeVos said: I am not going to be a party to that. Her delay was challenged in court. Her decision to delay this new rule was found illegal by a Federal judge, after which the current rule went into effect, and it remains in effect today. Secretary DeVos also announced she would begin a new rulemaking to replace the current rule. In late August, Secretary DeVos released her borrower defense rule, the new rule which she wants to put in place. It actually guts the borrower and taxpayer protections in the current borrower defense rule and makes it nearly impossible for students holding this student loan debt who have been defrauded to get relief. How does she make it so hard? It is estimated that the rule will provide $11 billion less in relief to defrauded borrowers--students--than the current rule. Among other things, the new Betsy DeVos rule increases the burden on these defrauded students to gather and submit almost impossible amounts of evidence to somehow prove their claim. Student borrowers will have to provide evidence that the school intentionally harmed them. Now, how are they supposed to do that? The DeVos rule--the new one--requires borrowers to apply individually rather than receiving automatic discharges when they are part of a group of student borrowers who have been harmed by similar practices by places like Corinthian. In other words, you are on your own. Get your own lawyer. Lawyer up. Get some evidence together. Come see us, and maybe we will be convinced. Student borrowers who have been cheated are not exactly the wealthiest group in America. They are often facing incredible financial difficulties and deep emotional strain, with a mountain of debt and nothing to show for it because of these for-profit schools. Now Secretary DeVos wants them to be investigators and lawyers and get their own relief one by one. The DeVos rule also eliminates the current prohibition on class action restrictions and mandatory arbitration clauses in enrollment. What does that mean? Under the current rule which Secretary DeVos wants to replace, you could gather the other students from Corinthian College and work on this together as a class action claim, share whatever expenses that might be involved in proving your claim, and you couldn't be forced into an arbitration where you are likely to lose. You could have your day in court under the rule that Secretary DeVos wants to replace. Class action restrictions and mandatory arbitration were used by Corinthian and ITT Tech and others that required students to sign away their rights to sue the school as an individual or as part of a class as a condition of enrollment. The DeVos rule prevents students from holding schools directly accountable for their wrongdoing and seeking financial redress through the courts. It gives students no other option than to seek relief from taxpayers through borrower defense, but, as I just mentioned, it makes that process almost impossible. And if anyone doubts the devastating effect this rule will have on the defrauded students' ability to get relief, just look at what Secretary DeVos has done to date. Since taking office Secretary DeVos has had the authority to discharge hundreds of millions of dollars in student loan debt held by hundreds of thousands of defrauded student borrowers. Instead, she has allowed a backlog of more than 200,000 borrower defense claims from virtually every State in the Nation--student borrower defense claims coming from all 50 States--to build at the Department. She is sitting on it. She is playing slow ball. She has not approved a single claim. Although more than 200,000 claims are pending, she has not approved a single claim in more than 1 year. Here I want to show you what is behind this. In the few cases where Secretary DeVos has been legally required to provide discharges, she has done so with extreme displeasure. Think about that. Using her authority to help defrauded borrowers get a fresh start brings her extreme displeasure. How do I know that? She wrote it. Here is one of them. Recommendation to discharge. She approves it, signs it, and puts down as a comment: ``with extreme displeasure.'' Discharging a student loan from a for-profit institution that defrauded borrowers, she is displeased to be forced to do such a thing. She defied a Federal court order and was held in contempt for continuing to collect from these students who had been defrauded by Corinthian. This is not a Secretary who rewrote the borrower defense rule to help student borrowers. In September, I introduced a resolution in the Senate to overturn the DeVos borrower defense rule; 42 of my colleagues have cosponsored that resolution. I plan to bring the resolution to a vote on the Senate floor where we will only need a simple majority to pass under the expedited procedures provided for in the Congressional Review Act. At that time, my colleagues will have a choice. Will you stand with Secretary DeVos or with the defrauded student borrowers in your State? There is no doubt where the American people stand. In a 2016 New America poll, the question was asked whether Americans agreed that students should have their Federal student loan debt canceled if their college deceived them, exactly what the borrower defense rule is about. Seventy-one percent of Republicans said yes, 87 percent of Democrats. On average, 78 percent of Americans understand it is fundamentally unfair to penalize these students, having been defrauded by a school that this U.S. Government said was doing business honestly and professionally. When you break the numbers down, it is clear. The overwhelming majority of people in this country stand by the students, but not by Secretary DeVos. I will stand with the defrauded students and the American people over Secretary DeVos, and my colleagues in the Senate will get a chance to vote. I hope they will, too. Mr. President, I yield the floor.

Mr. DURBIN

Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from New Jersey (Mr. Booker), the Senator from California (Ms. Harris), the Senator from Minnesota (Ms. Klobuchar), the Senator from Vermont (Mr. Sanders), and the Senator from Massachusetts (Ms. Warren) are necessarily absent. The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Cotton. Are there any other Senators in the Chamber desiring to vote?

Mr. DURBIN

Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. DURBIN

Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. DURBIN

Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. DURBIN

Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, on September 11, President Donald Trump held a press conference with the First Lady in the Oval Office. He announced that his administration would finally be taking bold action to combat our Nation's youth vaping epidemic. The epidemic is what the Food and Drug Administration characterized as the vaping that is going on in schools across America today--not just high schools, where 27 percent of the students are currently vaping, but middle schools and grade schools as well. Seated next to the President on September 11 in the Oval Office was the First Lady. On the other side was the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, Alex Azar. Directly across from the President was then-Acting Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, Dr. Ned Sharpless. At the press conference, President Trump stated: We have a problem in this country . . . and it is called ``vaping''--especially vaping as it pertains to innocent children. . . . And we're going to have to do something about it. Then Secretary Azar said: An entire generation of children risk becoming addicted to nicotine. . . . So with the President's support, the Food and Drug Administration intends to finalize a guidance document that would . . . require that all flavors other than tobacco flavor would be removed from the market. This would include mint and menthol flavoring, as well as candy flavors, bubblegum flavor, fruit flavor, and alcohol flavor. Explaining why this action was necessary, the Acting FDA Commissioner, Dr. Sharpless, said: Flavored e-cigarette products drive childhood use. Secretary Azar and Acting Commissioner Sharpless committed to finalizing this guidance, in their own words, within ``a couple of weeks.'' Yet here we are more than 2 months later with no e-cigarette flavor ban in place. What is worse, now there are reports that President Trump has decided to reverse himself, to break the promise he made to American families, as a direct result of lobbying from big tobacco and big vape companies. We know whom this President is hearing from. He is hearing from JUUL, the company primarily responsible for today's youth vaping epidemic. He is hearing from Altria, the big tobacco company that just bought a major stake in JUUL. He is hearing from the Vaping Technology Association, a lobbying organization that represents vaping shops nationwide. It makes sense that these companies would want the President to reverse himself, to break his word to American families, because they make profits on the backs of our kids, just like Big Tobacco did for so many years. Today, almost 30 percent of all high school-aged children are vaping. That is more than 5 million kids. Where did they come up with these numbers? From this administration's report to the American people. Four percent of adults are vaping and up to 30 percent of high school kids. When they show these pictures of adults walking around with buttons that say ``We vape and we vote,'' it is a tiny sliver of America. The kids should be wearing buttons that say ``We vape, and our health is at risk.'' Over the last 2 years of Donald Trump's Presidency, the number of children vaping has increased by 135 percent. More than 1 in 4 high school kids are using e-cigarettes, and more than 1 in 10 middle school children are following their example. Kids are using these products because of the cool, sleek designs of devices like JUUL and because of the flavors designed to appeal to just kids. Listen to them: cotton candy, unicorn milk, cool mint, mom's sugar cookie, and, of course, menthol. According to the Food and Drug Administration, more than 80 percent of children who vape started with flavored e-cigarettes. Does anyone believe that these vaping flavors are actually intended for a 50-year- old chain smoker looking to quit cigarettes--flavors like Farley's Gnarly Sauce, Bubble Purp by Chubby Bubble, Blue Razz by Candy King, and Cotton Candy by Zonk? Do you honestly think a 50-year-old trying to break a tobacco cigarette habit is going to buy Cotton Candy by Zonk flavoring? Every single one of these products is on the market today without review or authorization from the Food and Drug Administration. That is because under President Trump, the FDA decided to delay regulation of these products for years. And while the FDA dithers, children get addicted. As a result, it is the Wild Wild West out there with respect to unapproved, unregulated, dangerous, and addictive vaping products, and it is our kids who are paying the price. Despite what Big Vape says, these products are not safe. In recent months, we have seen thousands of illnesses and 42 deaths associated with vaping, including four in Illinois. Two weeks ago, a woman came up to me and said: You don't know me. I am a nurse. And she gave me the name of the hospital. She said: I just want to tell you, I was there when that 22-year-old man died last week from vaping. He had been in our hospital for months waiting for a lung transplant because of the damage he had done to his lungs by vaping. He couldn't find a donor, and he died. There are other known dangers associated with e-cigarettes and nicotine. Nicotine is a toxic, highly addictive substance that raises blood pressure and spikes adrenaline, increasing the risk of heart disease. Nicotine can have short- and long-term negative health impacts on the developing brain. Kids who use e-cigarettes are more likely to transition to tobacco cigarettes, and those kill 480,000 Americans each year. There is hardly a family in this country who hasn't been touched by tobacco-related death and disease. A Dartmouth study shows that e-cigarette use leads to 81 new smokers for every 1 smoker who quits. Don't buy the pitch from JUUL that you ought to be vaping so that you can get off of tobacco cigarettes. It is running just the opposite--kids starting on vaping and converting to tobacco cigarettes. What do we know about e-cigarettes? They are predominately used by our children. Flavors play a major role in hooking kids on nicotine. Nicotine use harms the developing brain, and kids who vape are more likely than their peers to transition to tobacco cigarettes. Now let's consider what we don't know about e-cigarettes. We don't know whether they are safe. We don't know whether they actually help adult smokers quit. We often don't know what the ingredients are in those devices. E-cigarette flavors need to come off the market unless or until they can prove they have a public health benefit--and good luck to that. The President of the United States, the Secretary of Health and Human Services, and the head of the Food and Drug Administration all told us on September 11 that they were on the side of kids and families and public health, and they promised us they were going to do something about it. Today, I am sending the President a letter asking him to keep his word, to ban e-cigarette flavors, which threaten our kids with a lifetime of nicotine addiction, illness, and, sadly, even death. Along with families nationwide, I am hoping the President cares more about children than he does about the lobbying pressure from big tobacco and big vape companies. Just because they can buy an ad on FOX TV does not mean they are right. For goodness' sake, Mr. President, stick with your promise of September 11. Protect our kids from this vaping epidemic. I ask unanimous consent that my letter to the President be printed in the Congressional Record.