John Kline

Mr. KLINE

Mr. KLINE. Mr. Speaker, I claim the time in opposition to the gentleman's motion.

Mr. KLINE. Mr. Speaker, this proposal for a hypothetical refinancing interest rate would make financial understanding even more confusing. We have been working on a process here to make it easier for students and parents to understand their loans and grants and workstudy programs. This would not be helpful. This motion, like all motions to recommit, affords the minority an opportunity to speak for 5 minutes to try to make political points before a procedural vote. That is done. Let's take the vote. Vote ``no'' on this and ``yes'' on the underlying bill. I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. KLINE. Mr. Speaker, I demand a recorded vote.

Mr. KLINE

Mr. KLINE. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and to include extraneous material on H.R. 3136.

Mr. KLINE. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I rise today in strong support of the Advancing Competency-Based Education Demonstration Project Act of 2013. Mr. Chairman, this week, Congress is moving forward with a bipartisan effort to strengthen our Nation's higher education system. Across the country, millions of college students are getting ready to start the school year. They will soon say good-bye to family and friends and pursue their dream of a postsecondary education. Unfortunately, Mr. Chairman, many Americans are struggling to turn that dream into reality. The higher education system we know today is too costly, too bureaucratic, and outdated. Some are having a hard time fitting the traditional college experience into a busy lifestyle that already includes work, family, or both. Others are graduating with a pile of debt and no job prospects. A college degree can open the door to a bright and prosperous future, yet too often, obstacles stand in the way. Ultimately, States and institutions must provide the answers students and families need, but Congress has a role to play as well. First and foremost, we need to continue promoting policies that will get this economy moving again, so every college graduate who wants a job can find a job. We can also adopt commonsense reforms that will improve our higher education system. Today, the House will begin to do just that. We have an opportunity right now--right now, Mr. Chairman--to advance reforms that will support innovation and empower students to make informed decisions about their college careers. H.R. 3136 is the first step in that effort. The bipartisan Advancing Competency-Based Education Demonstration Project Act will allow institutions to expand an innovative approach to higher education, known as competency-based education. This model of education defines a set of skills for a field of work and then measures student progress in acquiring those skills. Once a student demonstrates a level of skill or competency, he or she can move to the next step in the academic program. Instead of awarding a student credit hours for time spent in class, competency-based education allows a student to learn at a pace tailored to his or her specific needs. If you are a single mom, you may need more time to complete your degree while juggling the demands of work and kids, or if you are a dad out of a job with a family to support, 4 years sitting in a classroom is time you do not have. Competency-based education holds tremendous promise. It allows students to earn a degree in less time and even at a lower cost than in a traditional education setting, yet it is difficult for institutions to expand this innovative model under a system that values time over learning. H.R. 3136 will help us move in a different direction. The legislation directs the Secretary of Education to authorize a number of demonstration projects to test and strengthen competency-based education. Among other provisions, the legislation requires the Secretary to focus on programs that are designed to reduce costs in the time it takes to earn a degree. The bill requires a thorough evaluation of each demonstration project, so policymakers learn which programs demonstrate success and what specific roadblocks are standing in the way. Mr. Chairman, this is a good bill that will help make a difference in the lives of students and families. I want to thank the bipartisan authors of the legislation: Mr. Matt Salmon, Mr. Jared Polis, and Mrs. Susan Brooks. I urge my colleagues to support the bill, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. KLINE. Mr. Chairman, I yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Salmon), a key member of the committee and one of the principal authors of this important legislation.

Mr. KLINE. Mr. Chairman, I will be the last speaker on our side, and will close. I think the other side has completed their speakers as well, so I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. KLINE. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Again, I want to thank the authors of this bill, with particular emphasis on Mr. Salmon, Mr. Polis, and Mrs. Brooks. A lot of people worked on this, though. My colleague, the ranking member of the full committee, Mr. Miller, and I have talked about the advantages of moving forward with innovation and new ideas, because that is what is happening, Mr. Chairman. Colleges and universities are changing--or trying to change--the model, the model which, as Mr. Polis pointed out, is based on how much time you sit in a seat, not what you have learned and not what competency you have. It has been pointed out by a couple of speakers today that we are now dealing with a different student body than we have in the past. These are contemporary students. I guess that is our way of saying they are not the traditional students of the high school seniors who graduate and go off to 4 or 5 or 6 years of college. These are people, many times, who have come back, looking for a second career, a second chance, a new opportunity, and--yes, Mr. Chairman--looking for lower costs. This bill addresses all of that in order to give more students, more people, more families a chance--an opportunity--and a way to do it at a lower cost. I know my friend and colleague Mr. Polis has a couple of times mentioned his concerns about sleep for students. That may have something to do with a new baby in the family, but he makes a good point that these are families and that they have children and that they have jobs, and they need to be able to demonstrate that they have the skills and the knowledge to go forward and get that degree or certificate. I am very, very pleased with this bill. I will emphasize that it is not the complete reauthorization of the Higher Education Act. We need to continue to move to get that done, but it is an important first step, and I am pleased that this bill was the first step. It has strong bipartisan support and strong recognition in the administration, in Congress, and in colleges and universities that this is the direction we need to go. As the ranking member pointed out, the demonstration projects part of this is important because, while we are thrilled with enthusiasm about the potential here, we need these projects to demonstrate what works well and what, perhaps, doesn't work as well as we had hoped. So I am excited about this legislation, and I urge my colleagues to support it. I would like to see a very big bipartisan vote for this because I know that is where the thought is, and I am enthusiastic about it. I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. KLINE. Mr. Chairman, I have an amendment at the desk.

Mr. KLINE. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I offer this amendment in close cooperation with my colleague, the ranking member, Mr. Miller. This manager's amendment clarifies that eligible entities that have been selected to carry out demonstration projects may submit amendments to their approved applications. It requires the Secretary of Education to collect and disseminate demonstration project best practices to eligible entities carrying out such projects, and it makes technical corrections. Mr. Chairman, this is a very straightforward amendment, and we offer it together to improve this bill. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. KLINE. I thank my colleague for his comments. Mr. Chairman, I urge support of this amendment, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. KLINE. Mr. Chairman, I claim the time in opposition, although I don't intend to oppose it.

Mr. KLINE. I see that the author has arrived. Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. KLINE. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume. The gentlewoman's amendment will help advance this goal by ensuring that a number of diverse institutions are aware of the opportunity to carry out an innovative, competency-based demonstration project. I thank the gentlewoman for offering the amendment, and I urge my colleagues to support it and the underlying bill. I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. KLINE. Mr. Chairman, I claim time in opposition to the amendment, though I do not intend to oppose the amendment.

Mr. KLINE. Mr. Chairman, I am excited about this amendment. There has been much discussion about things that we can do to help our American heroes, to help those veterans who have served and/or are serving. Many of these veterans and servicemembers are seeking higher educational opportunities, and many of them, while they have limited time due to work and family, they have skills. They have education. They have competency. So this competency-based education is almost tailor-made for them. I want to urge my colleagues to support this amendment and the underlying bill to help not only these American heroes, but students across the country. Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. KLINE. Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. KLINE. Parliamentary inquiry, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. KLINE. Mr. Chairman, I am a little confused about who has the right to close.

Mr. KLINE. Mr. Chairman, I urge support of this amendment, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. KLINE. Mr. Chairman, I move that the Committee do now rise.

Mr. KLINE

Mr. KLINE. Mr. Chairman, I claim time in opposition to the amendment, although I do not oppose the amendment.

Mr. KLINE. Mr. Chairman, this amendment which requires the Secretary of Education to study the advantages and disadvantages of using IRS income data to complete a student's application for Federal aid is an idea that is growing in popularity. Simplifying the Federal student aid application has been proposed by a number of our colleagues. As part of an effort to reauthorize the Higher Education Act, Representatives Larry Bucshon, Mike Kelly, John Tierney, Tim Bishop, Jared Polis, and Ed Royce introduced H.R. 4982, Simplifying the Application For Student Aid Act, which addresses this issue as well. That bipartisan legislation would streamline and improve the student aid application process by allowing students to import into their application IRS income data from 2 years prior to the date of application. The gentleman's amendment today will help inform us how better to simplify this process. I thank him for offering the amendment. I urge my colleagues to support it. I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. KLINE. Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to the motion.

Mr. KLINE. Mr. Speaker, I certainly appreciate the gentleman from Massachusetts' passion on this issue. We have shown in this House, again and again, that we are willing and able and have taken steps to help students pay for their loans. More importantly, we did that in a bipartisan way. My colleagues may remember that last year, we all agreed it wasn't fair--it wasn't right--to double the rates students were already struggling to afford. We had a bipartisan solution to turn that interest rate determination over to the market, which much more accurately reflects the cost of that money, rather than politicians sitting around and making a decision. We are taking action right now in the underlying bill to make it less costly for students to go to school to get their educations, to get their degrees, to get their certificates by advancing the competency- based education bill. We are open to discussing ways to help student borrowers manage the amount of debt they are taking on to finance their college degrees, but today, Mr. Speaker, is not the time, and this is not the place to have that discussion. This motion is, as is, frankly, always the case, a partisan move to score political points with a procedural vote. I urge my colleagues to support the underlying bill and vote ``no'' on the motion to recommit. I yield back the balance of my time.