Chairman Miller on Senate Passage of College Cost Legislation

On Wednesday, July 11th, the House passed the College Cost Reduction Act of 2007, and the Senate has now followed suit. The bill will provide the single largest increase in college aid since the GI bill in 1944. The legislation invests about $18 billion dollars over the next five years in reducing college costs, helping millions of students and families. It comes at no new cost to taxpayers, and is funded by cutting excess subsidies paid by the federal government to lenders in the student loan industry.

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Chairman George Miller of the Education and Labor Committee commended the Senate passage:

Chairman Miller Statement on Senate Passage of College Cost Legislation

Historic Increase in College Financial Aid One Step Closer to Becoming a Reality for America's Students and Families

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- U.S. Rep. George Miller (D-CA), the chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee, made the following statement on the Senate's approval of the Higher Education Access Act of 2007. Companion legislation in the House of Representatives, the College Cost Reduction Act, passed overwhelmingly earlier this month.

"One of the key goals of this Democratic Congress has been to ensure that every qualified student in the country can afford to go to college. With the Senate now joining the House in approving historic legislation to increase college aid for students and families, we are a big step closer to making this goal a reality. I commend Chairman Kennedy for his hard work on this legislation and look forward to working with him to send a student aid bill to the President's desk. And I urge the President to join Congress in its commitment to making college more affordable and accessible for low- and middle-income students and their families. College access is critical to strengthening our nation's middle class and helping make the American Dream a reality for everyone in our country."

On July 11th, moments before House passage on the floor, Chairman Miller spoke out against a Republican effort to kill the bill through a motion to recommit:

Chairman Miller: "You could have written a motion another way, you deliberately wrote it this way so you could kill this bill. What is it you don't like about this bill? You don't like the fact that while you were in power after years of flat lining the Pell Grant, we we've finally given them the biggest increase in decades for the poorest kids in this country. You don't like that so you want to kill the bill. You don't like the fact that were going to take 5 million middle class kids and extend to them a loan thats interest rate is cut in half? While their families are struggling to get them through college? They're making sacrifices every year? You're going to do this? You're going to kill this bill? Are you proud? Are you proud of this amendment, that you are going to try to kill this bill? Say it louder."