George Miller

Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California

Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentleman for offering this amendment. He and Ms. Ros-Lehtinen address some very, very important problems of making sure we have adequate providers within the community for people with mental illness, and I would hope that everybody would support this amendment.

Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Mr. Chairman, will the gentleman yield?

Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. I thank the gentleman for yielding. I, too, want to thank the gentlewoman for offering this amendment, and I would ask everybody to support it. I thank her for all the work she does on behalf of homeless youth. We appreciate it, and I am sure they do too.

Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California

Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Reclaiming my time, Mr. Chairman, I want to thank my colleagues for this amendment. I have had wonderful experience with the Teach for America teachers in my congressional district. This past week I was up in the Lakota Nation on the reservations of Rosebud and Pine Ridge, and met a number of Teach for America teachers there and the coordinators. And I think in that case, we always talk about them being for 2 years, I think almost 30 percent of the teachers are planning to extend themselves for another year on those reservations, in Indian and public schools on the Indian reservations, and they are doing a magnificent job. So I would urge the passage of this amendment and thank Mr. Castle, Mr. Osborne, Mr. Ford, Mr. Regula and Mr. Van Hollen for offering this amendment. Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Madam Chairman, I ask unanimous consent to claim the time, although I am not opposed to the amendment.

Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Madam Chairman, we support the amendment, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Madam Chairman, I ask unanimous consent to claim the time, although I am not opposed to the amendment.

Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Madam Chairman, we support the amendment, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Madam Chairman, I ask unanimous consent to claim the time, but I am not opposed to the amendment.

Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Madam Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I want to thank the gentleman for offering this amendment. I think it is an important addition to this legislation, and I urge my colleagues to support it. Madam Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself 1 minute. The gentleman tells an interesting story on Pell Grants, but the problem is the amount of money for Pell Grants has gone up simply because more students are eligible for that. More students are applying for that, but the Pell Grant that they get is worth less now than it was in the year 2000, worth less than it was in 1995. The fact of the matter is, it is covering only about 30 percent of the cost of the college, and it is getting worse every day. Mr. Chairman, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Kind). (Mr. KIND asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Mr. Chairman, will the gentleman yield?

Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentleman for yielding. I hope this will not come out of his time, but I certainly want to associate myself with your remarks in thanking Sally for all of her work in a most cooperative way, but keeping us on our toes a lot of the time over here. So we thank you and wish her well for all of her service to the committee. I thank the gentleman. Mr. Chairman, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Scott).

Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Mr. Chairman, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Van Hollen).

Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself the remainder of the time. (Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Mr. Chairman, Members of the House, there is some suggestion that somehow this bill has become a partisan bill. The fact of the matter is that this bill has continued, as we have done so many bills in the Education Committee, started out on a bipartisan basis, and we worked on that basis over the last couple of years. And then in the last session of Congress, the decision was made in the reconciliation bill to split out the student loan portions of this bill and to make the cut, the now famous $12 billion cut, in the student aid accounts. We continued to work with the majority, and up until yesterday, when I went in and talked to Mr. McKeon and told him I just didn't think we were going to be able to arrive at a conclusion, and he was getting ready to go to Rules Committee, and I said that we are just not going to get to that point where the Members on my side of the aisle, significant players in the education community and on our committee would not support the legislation. We look forward to continuing to work with him as we go into conference. But the fact of the matter is, I think what Members see in this legislation, when we talk about a missed opportunity, when we talk about a failure to respond is you can continue to put up charts that we are spending more money. Yes, the entitlement programs of Pell and the entitlement loan program are spending more because more students are becoming eligible for them, some because of a bad economy, some because they have decided to go to college. But the fact of the matter is you are spending more money and you are purchasing less. And the gap that the maximum Pell Grant covers now, it used to cover 40 percent of that student's education. If that student worked full-time during the summer, part-time during school, they could close that gap. Starting this year, they can no longer close that gap. They are going to be about $2,000 short. They are going to be about $2,000 short if they work over that period of time. So the Pell Grant is purchasing less and less of the college education. In just a couple of years, a couple of years from now, that gap will dramatically increase even more. So what the problem is, and what the Republicans haven't yet recognized is, the conversations that are taking place in families right now as students are trying to put together their aid package, that the student loans, the Pell Grant are purchasing less and less of the cost of that education. And this bill fails to address that. This bill fails to address that because they chose, when they made that $20 billion in cuts, the $12 billion net, they chose not to reinvest those savings in the education programs on behalf of these families and their students. Families will continue and students will continue to pay excessive fees and excessive charges. They will not let the lenders keep them, and they shouldn't let the lenders keep them. But they take what they admit are excessive payments by these families, and they give it for the tax cut. They don't say, here, take this money back; return this to the borrower, let them keep the money, let them pay for their child's education. They take it off and give it off to the tax cuts for the oil companies and the tax cuts to the wealthy. That is what we talk about when we say a missed opportunity. The Republicans just aren't hearing huge numbers of American families who are struggling with the decision on how to pay for their kids' college education. In that cut, they raise the interest rates on those parents from 7.9 percent to 8.5 percent. The parents are going to have to borrow more under this program. They charge them a 1 percent insurance fee. They say, well, it is waivable, all that. The fact of the matter is they are raising costs at a time when it is harder and harder for families in America to put together the package to pay for that education. And as we see now, even if the students work full time in the summer, part time through the school year, they cannot close that gap. That is what we mean. That is why some of the speakers got up here and said they are worried about the affordability. That is what we mean by the inability to address the needs of families and students who want to pursue a higher education. Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Mr. Chairman, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Kucinich).

Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Mr. Chairman, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Bishop).

Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Mr. Chairman, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Emanuel).

Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Engel).

Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Mr. Chairman, we have seen the amendment and discussed it with the chairman, and we have no objections to the amendment.

Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Mr. Chairman, we have read the amendment. We support the amendment. We urge passage.

Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Mr. Chairman, I ask unanimous consent to claim the time, but I am not opposed to the amendment.

Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California

Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding me this time. Mr. Speaker, traditionally, the higher education bill has been an opportunity for this Nation to pause and think about the role of higher education over the coming years in American society, in America's economy, in America's national security. Every 4 or 5 years we reauthorize that act. That is not what happened this time, and that is why you have opposition to this bill across the higher education community, across America from every sector, because we did not do that. Instead, the higher education bill was hijacked. It was hijacked by those in the Republican Party that wanted to take the savings from the student aid accounts and give them to the oil companies and to the energy companies for their tax breaks. To continue to pay for the tax breaks for the wealthiest people in this country, they hijacked those moneys that America's families and students have been paying over the years, the excessive fees and excessive rates that they have been paying, and rather than reinvest them in America's future, rather than reinvest them in the institutions of higher education, in the families and students who are attending those institutions who are trying to get those advanced degrees to participate, they simply took that money 3 months ago and walked off with it. And now what we have here are the leftovers, the leftovers that state lofty principles and ideals, but fund none of them. The Budget Committee is slashing education funding. The caps have suggested that they want cuts beyond what the President has suggested in his budget, and that is the status of higher education in America today. What does it mean? Members recall Mr. Dreier talked about the EU coming to some conclusions. You do not have to go to the EU. Just listen to what Americans, who are thinking about the subject, who have a great stake in the outcome have been telling this Congress for a number of years, and this Congress has turned a deaf ear to those individuals under Republican leadership. Whether it is the American Academy of Sciences, whether it is the Council of Graduate Schools, whether it is the American Electronics Association, whether it is Tech Net, whether it is the bioscience companies, all of these people have paraded to Washington and said one thing: you must reinvest in the R&D and in fellowships and in graduate school programs for science, engineering and mathematics. It is not being done. It is not being done. We recognized and we have been warned of the need to reinvest in the greatest partnership ever created in the history of the world, the greatest public-private partnership that was the result of President Kennedy's decision to send a person to the Moon and to bring them back safely. It was more than a Moon shot. It was an investment in the best and the brightest in America. Tens of thousands of fellowships were given to individuals. They didn't have to go beg for a loan. They didn't have to think about working during the summer or on Easter vacation or student break. No, they concentrated on the science and the engineering, and America met its goal. And we have been living off that legacy now for 30 years. But everybody in that field, betting their money, their company's money, their venture capitalist money has told us the time has come to reinvest. That is not what this bill does. That is not what this bill does. This bill just passes on as if nothing has changed in America. And yet, members of this committee, Members of this House have traveled to the Pacific Rim. They see the new institutions being created in India and South Korea and China. They see institutions that are attracting some of the best and brightest minds from America to those institutions. They see the investment being made by the private sector of worldwide companies, American companies, because of that kind of investment that is being made there. But this bill doesn't address that. This bill is just status quo. This bill doesn't create new fellowships. This bill doesn't create new opportunities for people to pursue those degrees. This bill simply adds to the debt and the cost, because when I say ``this bill,'' understand I talk about both bills. You split them for the convenience of what you wanted to do with your raid on student aid. But this is the higher ed bill. The moneys were skimmed off in the name of the oil companies. The moneys were skimmed off in the name of tax cuts to the wealthy, so we don't have the ability to make that investment that we have been warned about by the leading companies, by the leading people who have been thinking about this, by various institutions about the investment that America needs to make. So we have a bill now that really doesn't do much of anything. It pretends that it sort of increases Pell Grants, but as we know, the Pell Grant has continued to lose value. Yes, they say, well, we put more money in it every year. That is because more students, tragically, are eligible for the Pell Grant because they don't have the family income. And we now see that the Pell Grant now covers the lowest percentage of costs for those students who have Pell Grants going to school; it has dropped from 41 percent. It covered 41 percent of those costs in 2000. It is now down; it will be down to 25 percent by 2010. So the trend line is horrible. The trend line is horrible for those students most in need, those families most in need. More and more of them are showing up to get the Pell Grant, but they are not getting enough money to cover the costs of their college education. The trend line is horrible. And the number of students who are pursuing graduate degrees in science, math and engineering, it is working against the American economy and American security. But this bill doesn't address that. The Higher Education Act has lost its place in the priorities of this Congress and the priorities of this Nation about the future of education, and that is a tragedy. That is a tragedy for those students who will be saddled with higher costs because of the increase in interest rates, with higher fees. Their parents will be saddled with higher costs. Those who will choose to take out direct loans to try to reduce the cost will find out they are paying fees now. And so that is what the Republicans decided. Their idea, when every indicator suggests that college costs are getting out of the reach of America's families and students and workers, their idea was to increase the cost to those families and to their students. It is just unacceptable. It was unacceptable 3 months ago, and it is unacceptable today. This bill should be returned to committee, and we should initiate the debate that this country demands and that this country needs in terms of the future of these students, our economy and our national security. That is what this higher education bill should be about. It should not be about the leftovers after the largest cut in student aid accounts in history have already been pulled off 2 months ago.