Congressional Hall
Bill Name Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2009 Bill Category Amendment Extented Title To amend the Higher Education Act of 1965, and for other purposes.
Bill Summary This information is intended to be a nonpartisan summary and may not include all specifics contained in the full text of the bill. Further research may be necessary in order to make an informed decision. This bill does several things. First, this bill increases, by $490, the maximum Pell Grant amount that can be awarded to students. This bill also allocates money to be given in the form of grants to states for programs to promote the completion of post-secondary education, especially for minority groups that are underrepresented in higher education. This bill also states that if a student is called up for active duty in the military, and has taken a loan to pay for that portion of his/her schooling, then that portion of the loan will be repaid for him/her. If a student has more than $150,000 in assets, then that student will not be eligible for Pell grants, loans, or work assistance. Also this bill includes language that would prohibit federal funds from what are called certain indicted organizations, specifically the community organizing group ACORN. Bill Type House Bill Interest Education, House of Representatives, Monetary Sponsor George Miller (D) California Co-Sponsor
09-17-2009 Passed/agreed to in House: On passage Passed by the Yeas and Nays: 253 – 171 (Roll no. 719). 07-27-2009 Reported (Amended) by the Committee on Education and Labor. H. Rept. 111-232. 07-15-2009 Introduced in House
CBO estimates 705 billion in loans, 70% of all loan volume over the next 10 years.
Bill Upends System for College Loans
By COREY BOLES and ROBERT TOMSHO
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125321217589620383.html
(See Corrections & Amplifications below)
WASHINGTON — House approval of an education-financing bill Thursday marks a first step toward sweeping changes in U.S. higher education that would cut out private lenders and leave the government as sole provider of student loans under federal programs.
The bill, which passed on a largely party-line 253-171 vote, would save taxpayers $87 billion over the next decade by ending fees paid by the government to private lenders, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. Among other things, the House bill would use the anticipated savings to increase grants for low-income students and boost funding for minority students.
The cost of student loans wouldn’t change as a result of the overhaul, according to the Obama administration. The only difference would be the source of the loans — the government as opposed to private lenders.
While the measure would eliminate private lenders from originating government-backed loans, banks and other lenders would be allowed to bid for a limited number of contracts to service government-made loans.
Richard Hunt, president of the Consumer Bankers Association, said Congress and the Obama administration should “consider alternative approaches that maintain choice for students and protect local jobs” at banks. Ending private lenders’ ability to originate government-backed loans “is a step in the wrong direction and at the wrong time,” he said.
The House vote follows two years of turmoil in the student-loan industry. In 2007, Congress reduced government payments to lenders making federally guaranteed student loans by more than $20 billion — just as credit markets started to seize up, eventually making it nearly impossible for lenders to package student loans into securities and sell them to investors, a key source of liquidity. Since the fall of 2007, more than 180 lenders have exited from all or part of the federal student-loan program.
This week, Fitch Ratings downgraded student-loan company SLM Corp., better known as Sallie Mae, to BBB-, and called its outlook negative.
For the school year that ended in the spring, companies lent students at 4,465 schools a total of $74 billion, up 13% from $65.3 billion the prior year.
