Economy & Budget

Today, the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee has taken the first step towards approving two key higher education bills that will make college more affordable, protect students from bad actors in the student loan industry, and provide students with clear information they need to understand and manage their debts.

The Committee approved the Higher Education Amendments of 2007, S. 1642, which I supported as an original cosponsor, and the Higher Education Access Reconciliation Act. Read more...

I’ve often said that No Child Left Behind’s most important contribution is that it has triggered a nationwide discussion on how we can raise student achievement in every single American classroom.  The fact that eight in ten Americans and three-quarters of educators support our efforts to reauthorize this landmark law is as strong an indication as ever that this discussion will continue in schools, in boardrooms, and at kitchen tables for years to come.

This survey, “Standards, Accountability, and Flexibility: Americans Speak on No Child Left Behind Reauthorization,

In this video, Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) explains his bill that will address currency misalignment with countries like China. Read more about it in Ryan's op-ed piece here

Last week I worked with the Education and Labor Committee to pass the College Cost Reduction Act of 2007 -- a bill that will make the single largest investment in higher education since the GI bill, at no cost to taxpayers. It passed out of committee by a vote of 30 to 16.

The bill would increase college financial aid by nearly $20 billion over the next five years by cutting interest rates on student loans, increasing and expanding grants for students with financial needs, and providing loan forgiveness as an incentive to begin a career in public service. Read more...

Yesterday, I cosponsored a bipartisan Higher Education Act (HEA) reauthorization bill, S. 1642, that will make college more affordable, protect students from bad actors in the student loan industry, and provide students with clear information they need to understand and manage their debts.  The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee will consider this legislation on Wednesday, June 20th.

After over three years of negotiations, Republicans and Democrats have reached agreement on a number of key measures to make college more affordable for students by providing meaningful increases to Pell Grants, restore students’ trust in student loan programs by holding lenders and schools to a code of conduct, and ensure that students and parents have the information they need about the costs of college and the impact of their loans to make sound decisions about their futures.

The bill creates a code of conduct for schools, lenders, and guaranty agencies to ensure that the agreements between lenders and universities work to the benefit of students. Read more...

It's about time we put our money where our mouth is.

The FY 2008 Homeland Security Appropriations bill that passed last week makes border security a top priority, provides additional border patrol agents for the country, gives first responders additional training and equipment, improves aviation and port security, and includes strong accountability measures in order to ensure that taxpayer dollars are being well spent.

I am proud to support this bill because it helps prioritize spending in order to alleviate the country's real national security concerns. Read more...

This week, there was a move afoot in the Capitol Building to put a new spin on an old slogan: what happens in Washington, stays in Washington.  Every year, the House starts the process of directing money to pay for all of the priorities of the federal government through twelve bills that must be passed by both the House and Senate.  In past years, as the Appropriations Committee considered the bills and brought them up for a vote, you would have found a public record of the funding requests of Members of Congress.

Unfortunately, this year Democrats in the House, led by Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey (D-Wisc.), announced that earmarks would not be a part of the public appropriations bills being considered.  Instead, the projects would be air dropped into the twelve conference committee reports later this year with no opportunity to be amended by either the House or Senate.  This backroom deal would leave virtually no time for oversight and much more opportunity for abuse.  In fact, only Congressman Obey and his staff would have the final say as to what projects would be funded, creating in essence an "earmark czar."

After a public outcry and a united response by House Republicans, Democrats were forced to capitulate and end this plan of secretly funding earmarks.  I am not going to blame the entire Democrat Party for the decisions of its leaders, but in the people's House, public scrutiny should be a cornerstone of our debates.  We deserve an opportunity to know which projects being funded are proper and necessary and which projects are abuses of both authority and influence.

Amid all the media analysis of which political party won in the earmark agreement on appropriations bills, let’s not lose sight of who are the real winners: the American taxpayers.

When we established the rule last year exposing earmark requests to the light of day, it was motivated by a belief that if the requests can’t stand up to scrutiny, they don’t deserve one cent of the taxpayers’ money.  As has been said before, sunshine is the best disinfectant.  By showing what is being requested -- and who is requesting it -- before the bill is voted on, Members have a chance to weed out those requests that don’t pass the waste test. Read more...

So many veterans in the Second District of Kansas have told me that the state of veterans' benefits is unacceptable. They tell me that, from rural access issues to 400,000 veterans waiting in line for disability benefits, what's going on today is just wrong, and they've launched a rallying cry for reform. Congress needs to listen. We need to take care of the veterans who had the guts, the courage, and the work ethic to serve this country. We must not cripple the Veterans Administration and leave it so underfunded and so weak that it cannot serve the new generation of veterans returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan.

This week Congress is considering an unprecedented, $6.7 billion increase in funding for the VA. After we pass this historic veterans' appropriations bill, our next item of business will be to ensure that the money is well spent. We must conduct the oversight needed to ensure that these funds make a day-to-day difference in veterans' lives.

My amendment was offered in an effort to restore a sense of fiscal responsibility to the Homeland Security Appropriations bill. It would have reduced funding for the Office of the Secretary and Executive Management by about $1.2 million. But just as importantly, this amendment highlighted the Majority's dangerous backsliding into secrecy on earmarking.

Fortunately for the American taxpayers, the Democrats caved under the Republican's united pressure for openness and brought the spending process back into the light. Thanks to this monumental victory, we can debate each of the appropriations bill with every earmark open to scrutiny-instead of shrouded in the smoke of backroom deals and shadowy slush funds.