guest: this year we documented over $10 billion in savings. we believe going forward in terms of if the action recommendations are our actionsd recommendations are addressed, the government could save tens of billions of dollars a year. thank you for joining us. that will be it for "washington journal" this morning. we will be back tomorrow at 7:00 a.m. enjoy the day. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2014] >> both the house and senate are in session today even the

house is in at noon eastern for general speeches. 2:00 p.m., members were welcome suspension bills including legislation providing more accountability in the veterans affairs department and to reauthorize nasa programs. debate on legislation spending for 2015 transportation and housing programs. at senate begin their day 2:00 p.m. eastern. general speeches first. then senators will vote to move forward on three district judge nominations for virginia, massachusetts, and nevada. you can see the house here on c-span. president obama today is set to issue an executive order aimed at easing student borrowers debt load by capping repayments and 10% of their monthly income. the order would expand on a 2010 but leftcap repayments a hole in eligibility for people with older loans. left out of that relief for people that borrow before 2007 or stop borrowing by 2011.

student loan debt reached more than a trillion dollars last year, an amount that has economist concerned, saying it is having a chilling effect on spending patterns. we will have the president announcement today live from the white house starting at 1:45 p.m. eastern on the website www.c-span.org. heldenate budget committee a hearing on student loan debt, including the impact of student loans on borrowers and the larger economy. --nesses included the

>> welcome to all of you joining us today, as well as a room full. welcome to all of you on this important topic today. about abe talking challenge that 40 million people around our country face today and for many americans who want to further their education and build their skills, taking out student loans becomes a college prerequisite. that can have lasting consequences for borrowers and weaken their chances of getting ahead. ensuring more americans get a fair shot at something that many of us here in the senate are very focused on and a bill is coming to the floor very soon which will allow borrowers to refinance their school loans is an important part of that agenda. i will discuss this legislation a bit more later but first i want to thank our witnesses who are here with us today who will help shed light on the challenges that mounting student

that can pose for borrowers and for our economy. they we will hear from student loan ombudsman for the consumer financial protection bureau. i am pleased to welcome britney ands, a recent graduate former president of the student virginia education association. we will also hear from richard vedder, a distinct professor of economics at ohio university. degree is a worthwhile investment and for many it can be a ticket to the middle class. we know on average college graduates earn more and they tend to have more unemployment rates than their less educated peers. a highly educated workforce is also good for the country. it strengthens the middle class, strengthens the workforce we will need to compete in the 21st century global economy. the futurere jobs of will require post secondary credentials or degrees and in the coming years as many as two

thirds of all jobs will require at least some college education, according to the center on education and workforce. but to afford college, many have to turn to student loans to help advance their education. from britney jones, who will be talking about how taking out student loans made it possible for her to get a college degree. i look forward to hearing about your experiences. you have now started a teaching career and have started to pay down the student loan that got you through college. of course, britney is not alone. dealing with student debt has become a reality for a growing number of americans. the statistics are staggering. the average college graduate will have to pay back around $30,000 in student loans and a record number of young households owe student debt. households% of young had student debt. by 2010, that figure had more

than doubled, according to the pew research center. more young people than ever are dealing with more student debt than ever before and that can have lasting consequences. americans who took out school loans find it difficult to save and mckinley wealth. a recent study found college graduates without student debt had accumulated seven times more wealth than those paying back school loans. crushing student debt is not just hurting borrowers. there is mounting evidence that student debt is holding back our economy. historically, young americans have been a source of economic activity as they settled up their household and start their careers but today many are finding it difficult to save even for a down payment on a high monthly bills to pay back student loans can disqualify many from even getting a mortgage. when first-time homebuyers are not able to get a mortgage come it can adversely affect the housing industry as a whole area that is why groups like the

national association of realtors and home builders association have expressed concern about the overbearing financial weight of student loans. student debt can stifle entrepreneurship. young people dream of starting up their own business and are unable to take the risks and the business loans table -- needed to launch a startup. paying on student loan can prevent young people from saving for retirement or making the kinds of purchases that further our economic robbery. i know these economic consequences are what you and others at the consumer financial protection bureau have called the domino effect. i am looking forward to hearing more details in your testimony about those negative economic impacts. to address the challenges, we need to ensure student loan who track companies borrowers payments, are treating them fairly and responsibly. unfortunately, there have been an alarming reports that student

servicers are mistreating borrowers. some have discovered their service or have not properly processed payments. there have also been complaints that private student lenders have put borrowers into default if the cosigner dies, despite the borrower being current on their loan payments. here recented report that sallie mae was overcharging military members on their student loans. sallie mae has agreed to pay $100 million in fines after charging military members higher interest rates and have asked secretary arnie duncan to investigate to make sure other servicing companies are not doing the same thing. we can do more to help borrowers. the bank on student emergency act would allow borrowers to refinance their federal student debt. the congressional research service estimates the bill would let borrowers save $4000 on

average. passing the legislation would put more money into borrowers pockets so they could make ends meet, make down payments on homes, start new businesses, and help grow the economy. people can refinance their home or their business loans when interest rates drop. this bill will let borrowers with federal student debt do the same. this should be a bipartisan issue. last year, republicans and democrats came together to pass the bipartisan student loan certainty act which allowed new borrowers to take advantage of lower interest rates and established by the free market. this legislation would use the same free-market principles to help those with existing student loans. at a time when higher education is more important to our nation long-term competitiveness, a college degree should not drown borrowers in debt. now and in the future we need to make sure people who choose to further their education and are vitalr skills

able to afford college and manage their student debt. it is an economic imperative. to strengthen our middle class, and help mark economic growth congress needs to address the , challenges. i'm delighted to have the hearing today. before i turn it over to the witnesses, we will hear from senator johnson. it is a tragedy that we have incurred $1.2 trillion. i had a finance professor in college have a finance professor in college who spend a day talking about personal finance. he said the reason they call the debt instrument a bond is because when you go into. you put yourself into bondage and you want to avoid that. i took that to heart. i have the advantage of growing and going to college in the 70's when college was cheaper. i worked full-time.

read upon leaving college with close to $30,000 in debt, and left college with $7,000 in the bank. i wish that were more possible. would like to start with a chart i have repaired. i've been using this in my powerpoint presentations. just laying out some facts and food for thought. what this shows is that in 1963, the total cost of a four-year undergraduate degree in a public college was about $929 per year. that is room, board, intuition. by 1988, the actual cost has risen to $4600 which was 27% higher than just the rate of inflation. you can see as a 2012, the cost of college outstripped the rate of inflation by 2.5 times. rather than costing 7000, when you're college is about $17,474.

two times the rate of inflation. the question i have asking is why? what is so different about what colleges and universities spend their money on that their cost would outstrip the rate of inflation by two .5%? two of the components of a room and board, food and shelter, and the rest of the economy those have actually grown at a lower rate than inflation. let's face it. what we spend in college was about $2 trillion since 1963. it is all well-intentioned. it has a very serious negative unintended consequence.

dewey make it less accessible because we have made it so much more unaffordable? just to have a little more detail. of the $2 trillion we have spent over that timeframe, about 200 billion dollars was spent between 1963 in 1988. $1.8 trillion was spent as college costs really skyrocket. i will leave this for the reader to judge. i think he will talk a little bit about that as well. you are correct. it is a shame in 2011 the average student loan debt after four years of college is $25,000. of those 57% of students, about 29,500. another interesting statistic is

how long it is taking our students to graduate. about half graduate pretty much in the four-year timeframe. they graduate within 52 months. about 4.3 years. the other half raises the average time to graduate to 6.3 years. just as he we question, why is that, particularly when you have so may suit is leaving college with credits in the -- high school with credits in the bag. have we made fun to so readily that people can dither in college? just a question i'm asking. i know part of this hearing is to talk about other types of legislation to solve the problem. one thing i think is important for us to talk about is how those proposals might be scored. the cbo is constrained by having to score these under the reform act. under that scoring it is not a

account for economic conditions or loan default. it is showing that this saves it would also cause the government $88 billion over the 10 year frame. it is important if we are looking for peaceful legislation that we take a look at the fair value cost and the effect it has on the deficit. the only other thing i want to talk about is another unintended consequences some of these problems designed to give loans. in 2007, congress passed into law the college cost reduction and access act of 2007. it established a new loan program but discharges in the remaining debt after 10 years of full time employment in the public service. the borrower must have made 120

payments as far as the direct loan program in order to pay. they have to keep you there. they cannot be in default will there working for the public sector. lakota wrote a column said that law schools on opportunity. income-based monthly statements are lower so the schools to cover graduates payment entirely for the first 10 years. the money for law school repayment programs usually comes out of tuition mostly paid with federal student loans. do you understand what i'm saying? they law school is gaming the system. they are saying all we have to do is we will make the loan payments for our graduate students for 10 years and at that point the american taxpayer will pay for our law degrees. at berkeley, it is part of the fee that all they agree students pay. three to 50 borrowers are taking advantage of this program. at berkeley there are 263.

the average student debt of a law graduate is $150,000. at berkeley it is when under $15,000. -- 115,000. the university chicago is also doing that. until recently, georgetown had on its website basically talking about how schools combined with the federal plan "means public interest borrowers might not pay a single penny on their loans ever!" i understand all these aid packages are well-intentioned programs. i think we have to honestly take a look at the reality of the situation in the very serious unintended consequences of our good intentions. we have collectively enticed our

children to take in school debt. >> thank you. we are to turn to our witnesses. and keep her coming and sharing your personal experiences. we're going to start with you. >> good morning. i thank you for inviting me here today. my story starts as a second grade student when the decision was made. i would declare to the world that i would become a second grade teacher. i pursue this plan throughout my studies. as a teacher, followed by receiving my bachelor's degree i pursued our elementary education. it was in high school that the begin this. they talked about scholarships and financial aid awards. i assumed everyone could attend college.

it was not until i was except as that i would we offered that i feared i could not attend. after conversations, i made the decision to enroll with the assistance of student loans and become a teacher. the cost of attendance constantly increased while the grant funds decrease. upon graduation, the joy of completing the first portion of my program was overshadowed by the truth that i have borrowed well over $70,000 in student loans from various sources. federal subsidized, unsubsidized, perp and, and -- perkins and personal. i was facing the difficult decision of whether to continue my education and public my dream of becoming a teacher or seeking

immediate employment. one student bar the maximum amount was unable to fill the gap in his cost of attendance. he later withdrew and never returned. another student who serves as our treasurer also left school for financial reasons. she also had a job in sales and was offered the position of store manager. faced with the decision of occurring more student loan debt, it was no longer the passion would follow. when confronted to the decision to borrow another 20 grand to complete my program, i decided it was best to postpone attendance. admittedly after commencement, i drove to an interview for a preschool teaching job, got it and begin teaching the following tuesday. i was excited to have a position despite the low wage of $10 an hour because unlike many of my colleagues, i was working in my desired fields.

i was the lead teacher in my own classroom. i was elated until the loan statements started to come. because i owed approximately $60,000 at the time and i was working full-time, it had to start paying them back here at this route problematic. they figured i would be able to afford paying $600 a month. i was making $10 an hour and paying over $9,000 in rent and insurance and other expenses. my parents were able to help with some of the payments to keep the loan in good standing. this continued for a few more months until i lost my job. in 2012, i received notice that i had defaulted on the remainder of my loans totaling $58,000. a nicer gentleman called and requested the date by which i could send the $58,000 check or money order. after a laugh or two he said he would be happy to set up a paymentd plan. he put in the calculations and determined i would be able to

pay 653 a month. i was working as a prekindergarten teacher making 13.50. the numbers do not add up. i worked as many as three jobs at once just to make my monthly payment. two years later i was finally created to apply for financial aid and return to school to pursue my masters. the ordeal i went there with my student loans made this a weary one. the search for alternative programs began. i didn't not want to collect any more student debt. my goal is to become a classroom teacher, not a teacher with more loan debt then she can take. his name is i need them for residency program. through this program out become a masters degree. all fees associated will be repaid upon the completion of the program. it includes four years teaching

in denver public schools. this is promising. it is an exciting time in my life and almost $80,000 still await repayment. student loan debt has been the driving force of my decisions for the last eight years of my life. according to my current plan is suggested to be for the next 25 years of my life, well into the years for which i should be planning a retirement. it should not be this way. you have the power to make sure that it is it this way any longer. you can take action to help make college more affordable so that students have a fair shot at pursuing their dreams. degrees, not debt, should be our collective goal. i asked that you increase student aid especially those who need the most financial help your i urge you to help make student loans more affordable including by allowing refinancing of the loans as legislation from senator warner would do. i ask you to look for ways to make careers in public service like teaching more attainable by

expanding loan forgiveness programs. thank you for the opportunity to share my story today. >> thank you for coming and sharing that with us. >> members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to testify today about the potential impact of student debt. they are contributing to large increases in student debt owed by americans who have already graduated. in addition to considering how to make college affordable for future students, we cannot ignore the impact of the $1.2 trillion already owed by more than 40 million americans. there has been growing consensus that today's 1.2 trillion dollars can have repercussions that threaten the broader economy. the treasury secretary remarked that student debt is hampering our economy across multiple sectors of society.

the federal reserve identified student debt as a rest to aggregate household spending. executives in the banking industry have cautioned that the condition of the student loan market "is now having a significantly negative impact on students, the economy, and taxpayers. 49% of americans cited student loan debt as a huge obstacle to homeownership. the national association of home builders said aiken apparently ability for them to qualify for a mortgage. it may not only delay household formation but also other large purchases. america's largest automaker has cited the overhang as a key fact her, explaining the low level of car purchases by young people here student debt can hamper entrepreneurship. the limitary research find a negative correlation between

changes in student loan debt information of certain small businesses. it may also have a longer-term effect on future retirement security. young workers to save early for requirement can generate significant retirement assets over the course of their careers. did it debt may be stopping workers from evening contributing at all. the same can be said about the impact on later market outcomes. they noted that high debt burdens can impact the career choices of new positions, leading some to abandon primary care altogether. it can impact the availability of other professions critical to the livelihoods of those in rural communities. they are graduating with debt averaging over 115 thousand dollars per borrower, making it less likely you can make ends meet. the list goes on and on. there are several areas that

warrant attention. first is servicing. as the financial crisis and rivals -- and rivals, many state and proper foreclosures due to the stakes from their servicer. i am concerned that this may be interesting to our growing student loan problems talking 7 million americans in default over $100 billion in balances. last month after referrals, they ordered sallie mae to pay $100 million for violating multiple laws including illegal treatment of service members was student loans. unlike other markets, these are few and far between. when mortgage borrowers see broader interest rates plummet, their own incomes rise in the credit profiles improve. they try to refinance. responsible student loan bars rarely have these options.

the market transparency, regulators miss some of the important linkages by which problems in mortgages would rebound or the financial system. currently financial regulators lack fundamental information on student loan origination and performance. the drivers of the quincy and default in the student loan market are not well understood and we must work to close the transparency gap. in conclusion, we must ask ourselves how do we preserve the drive to succeed for so many who feel that the dream is just now out of reach, ignoring the warning signs may prove to hold back not only the future of growth and dynamism in our economy but our entrepreneurial spirit. adjusting these may prove dividends for many years to

come. i look forward to your questions. >> thank you. i wish to make three points. worse, the current student loan debt prices would never have happened had college cost at the general rate of inflation. the primary cause of the student debt problem is increased university fees. e must deal with the root cause of this, namely runaway college cost inflation. there are many reasons for this university price inflation, several which i mentioned in my written statement. one that is relevant here is rising tuition fees are partially given by federal assistance programs themselves.

any significant successful solution to the problem of rising college costs will work only if you radically change the nature and magnitude of federal finance. we are at or near a tipping point where fundamental change will come to higher education. these are starting to happen. many proposals do not fundamentally addressed the broader problems and would likely worsen rather than improve the situation. table one looks at the increase in tuition fees for various theaters over the last 75. the first half tuition fees to write about 1% more than the overall inflation rate.

since 1978, adjusted tuition growth has tripled to well over 3% a year. if it were what it had been before that day, tuition levels today would be only 60% lower. i'll look for your tuition levels will be in the 3000 to $5,000 range is a 7000 to $12,000. it is a bigger bargain for a simple of indiana to send their child to purdue university today than at the end of the great depression. even room and board charges for outdistanced food and housing inflation rates. solve the tuition fee problem and you will dramatically reduce the debt loan prices. there are many explanations.

the most relevant here is the explosion of growth in federal student financial aid. this has contributed to rising tuition fees. there will be no harm in it solution to the dutch permanent solution to the debt crisis without reining in federal programs. there are many ways to downsize these programs to make them more progress of which liberal democrat should like it also smaller and cheaper with republicans should like. existing programs have failed miserably at providing greater access for lower income americans. the proportion of recent college graduates coming from the lowest file is smaller than it was in 1970 before pell grants or student loan problems. rising income inequality has been associated with more financial aid assistance. i do not think that is coincidental. i show concerns about several administration initiatives

including the college rating system. they are lowering interest rate. i think this is a bad idea for several reasons. beginning with the fact that it does nothing to address college tuition inflation. conscientious payers of debt obligations and of getting punished relative to non-payers who get lower interest rates. it will also add tens of billions of dollars to the deficit and national debt. there are other objections as well. we may be over and breast-feeding in higher education. they are starting to decline. we need to reduce our aid program, probably doing away with tax credits and loans and constraining others.

there are no painless solutions. we are doing more, lowering interest rates. it will probably enhance, not reduce, income inequality. >> thank you very much. i appreciate all of our witnesses today. this is a discussion that many are interested in. we have a series of for both beginning and a half hour. let me be very strict with allowing five minutes to beat senator. we will be calling on people in order of arrival. with that, i wanted to start with ms. jones. thank you for sharing your story and being here to testify. all of my sisters and i went to college with hell grants or student loans to finance our education. i taught young children early on

which got me into politics to begin with. the financial burden of financial debt is considerably more than when i graduated. i share your understanding and appreciate your being here. in your testimony, you said you paid over $600,000 a month to cover your federal student loans. how much was your monthly take-home pay? >> at that time it was roughly 1500. >> do you have any money saved? >> i do not. i'd been using it to pay back the loans i have taken out for my undergraduate degree. >> when you ran into difficulty repaying all of your loans, did your service or offer any alternative repayment plan like the income-based repayment option? >> they did not. i do not learned that until very recently. i believe have i been offered that program my payment would have been roughly 150 a month as opposed to $600 a month.

>> if you have been able to take advantage of that it would reduce the payment to put $50. do you know how much you would save if you have been allowed to refinance your student loans? >> over 10 years, i would've been able to save more than $4000. >> how would that have impacted your life? >> as educators, we always have to buy materials for the classroom. funding is limited. i think having the extra funding available would make life easier. i would be able to save for the future in a be able to plan for retirement as opposed to wondering if it would be possible. >> i have to speculate that you would be in a much better place today. nobody told you. thank you for being here as well. he worked directly with a lot of student loan borrowers. he talked about some of the macroeconomic consequences. you have encountered a lot of

stories. >> one at the top issues they have identified is difficulties repaying, restructuring, and rolling, and loan modification programs and staying current to avoiding delinquency. >> our services are not reaching out and helping young people or even adult learning what their options are today. >> we learned a very painful lesson in the years around the financial crisis in the mortgage servicing market. there is some fundamental misalignment where what may be good for the loan owner or the investor and what may be good for the borrower is not actually the outcome. market forces can often cause terrible outcomes for everybody. >> i have heard from a lot of people today he were paying back loans that they do not know how much of the old. they're having trouble getting

that information. they do not get your the statements. britney is nodding her head. is that something you hear a lot? >> it is not actually just not knowing about it. it is also we hear from many borrowers and we see it in the data that a number of borrowers are reaching out and are seeking help with their often told to choose forbearance. we have continued to hear complaints from service members in military families that are simply told just do what military forbearance. that option will keep interest accruing. it'll make the debt burden harder but it is easy to accomplish rather than walking them through the steps to enroll in their eagle entitled benefits. >> it is hard for them to get good information personally about what they should be doing. ok. >> i have about 50 seconds left. families of the larger

implications for our economy. >> and our discussions with the banking industry, there is general concern about increasing debt to income ratios. while the advantages of going to college on the differential between college graduates and non-graduate is growing, most of that is growing because non-college graduate wages are slipping. it college graduate wages are so much higher but generally flat when controlling for inflation, the debt, which is growing even faster than tuition cost, that means less ability to create new credit whether it be for mortgages or to use those funds for other productive purposes. >> thank you. >> thank you for coming to testify. do any high school or college counselor ever go through the calculation of checking on student loan debt and how you

would be able to repay based on your profession? >> they did not. we started the conversations, they simply let us know that you can apply for millions of dollars in scholarships and grants. you just have to apply for them. you can talk to your financial aid counselor about the other options for paying for college. >> did you ever touch a financial aid counselor? about the ability to repay? >> not in the initial stages. they were just saying you had this much of a balance and he can pay with loans and you can take them if you want or borrow from your family. >> do you wish you would have had a finance professor talk about this? she could go back in time, would you do the same thing? would you try to figure out a different solution? >> in my experience, a college degree was absolutely necessary. the option to not get a degree was not available. i would do it.

michael is to become a teacher. >> have you ever heard of the college of the ozarks? it is a college and university set up for all the students work. it is set up so nobody incurs debt. does that, a good idea for you? it is a great investment. if it is a great investment, the loans ought to match its a you can handle those when you get done. >> it should. i think being able to refinance the loans we have will be a great benefit for students like me. the loans made it possible. there was no other funding available to go to school. we have to have our degrees to teach. you do not want an unqualified teacher in the room. i do not see myself doing anything else. whatever it takes to get to a question, that is what i will do. we need to look at what we can do to make it possible for everybody to get the degree they want. >> god bless you for being

willing to teach our kids. you said the student that is hampering our economy and entrepreneurship. how would shifting this debt to a select few to all of our kids and grandkids help entrepreneurship? we would be shifting it from those that incurred the debt to all of our kids and grandkids. we are arctic and the deficits and we cannot afford it. -- are already in debt and deficit and we cannot afford it. >> when broader interest rate environment change, it is common not only for homeowners but also for the corporate sector as well as the government to be able to match their debt to something that potentially reflects better their own credit profile. >> let me interrupt.

are you supporter of the the act of 2007 that basically forgives student loan debt after 10 years of working in the public sector? are you in favor of that? >> we do not know the results of that. nobody has actually received forgiveness from that program. >> forgiveness will come on the backs of american taxpayers. correct? >> that is congress'decision. >> are you supportive? how does that not hamper our economy if we shift the debt burden from a select few to all of the kids and grandkids? >> the distribution of the debt burden will come in multiple different sectors. i think the marginal propensity to consumed for young people a prime ages of home ages and purchases of durable goods, this

is something that is of great worry to the financial sector. >> there would be a lower propensity because the debt burden. are you disturbed about the political and wall street journal stories, about how the law school graduate schools are gaining that program? does that concern you? >> as we saw in the run-up to the financial crisis, it the essence of -- the incentive misalignment between those who offer loans and their alignment with investors or others can lead to very disastrous consequences. i do not know the specifics of the schools you mentioned. aligning incentives between schools, financial service providers and others is critical to ensure that market outcomes are efficient. >> thank you. >> thank you very much.

one of the noteworthy thing about student loans, and they stand out from virtually all other debt, is that somebody wrangled a provision into the bankruptcy reform act years ago, a somebody who has left no fingerprints on the amendment. i think it was stuck in conference. nobody takes credit for it. it snuck in and became the law of the land. it provides that student loan deck is not dischargeable in bankruptcy. think of status provided for in the constitution. it is one of the elemental --bankruptcy is provided for in the constitution.

it is one of the elemental parts of the constitution. yet the ability to fail and do it again. virtually every type of debt is dischargeable except student loan debt. is there an economic justification for bankruptcy debt being treated differently than any kind of debt? was that more in the nature of an unexpected blessing to the then largely violently held student loan industry? >> pursuant to a report that was required by congress to publish, we analyzed data related to student loan originations, particularly private student loans throughout the past 15 years or so. the 2005 change in the bankruptcy code, one would anticipate an ordinary marketplace that prices would come down as bankruptcy codes

become more strict. in fact, we saw that prices actually went up and this suggests that broader capital market conditions may be larger than teachers to pricing the markets and it suggests that the bankruptcy code is operating in a very different way as it compares to other consumer financial product markets. >> we had representatives from the private student loan industry come in and testify that it would be wrong to unwind this stealth provision that was not in the dark into this provision, because it would upset the settled expectations of the loan industry, which congress is the whole of irony.

it is ironic that an industry that step this in the midnight upsetting every settled expectation of borrowers as to how their loans will be treated. they now try to defend themselves why the rule of settled expectations. i do not believe there is any rational distinction between student loan debt and any other kind of debt. thank you for your testimony. you have been a turkic witness that has brought a real dose of reality to this hearing -- a real terrific witness that has brought a real dose of reality to this hearing. how has your student loan debt affected other personal decisions in your life like to own a home, to have a family? how has that burden of debt

changed what you might do with your life? >> i had this conversation with my mother a lot. she now asks maybe 15 times what it is that i'm pursuing the education field. she borrowed against her own retirement so that i could become the teacher and want to be. the decision to stick with education was driven because of the desired to want to see the future generations have the same chances we have. i will say these decisions to take out more student loans made going back to school a hard decision. i could not justify using more of my mom's retirement even just to pay for it. >> what has it done to your likelihood of owning a home? >> considering i have no funds for a down payment, that has been put off for a few years. hopefully in the future i can work something out so i can start saving again.

>> thank you. >> i want to thank the chair. i wanted to just ask him do we have an estimate by the administration yet as to how many student loan borrowers would actually take up the potential option to refinance their pre-july 2013 student loans? do we have a sense of what numbers we are talking about? do we have an estimate about what that will cost? i think is important so we understand the challenges we are facing as a nation as we look at this piece of legislation. do we know what those numbers are? >> it is an independent agency, not part of the administration. i do not have that type of analysis available.

what i can say is that we do know from our experience in various mortgage financing programs that the economic impact of individual mortgage refinancing according to a study by the department of housing and urban development led to approximately $25,000 of economic impact for homeowner that was able to refinance. a mortgage is a much larger loan. then again, a younger person may have a higher likelihood to be in prime age for certain purposes. i cannot speak to that. >> i am just trying to get at the basics. how much more are we going to add to the debt? how much more is this going to cost? we asked this question about every piece of legislation. it is basic information. perhaps with your background, let's start with 100% of

borrowers to refinance their july 1, 2013 loans or a large percentage, what kind of impact -- to we have any numbers we can think about here? >> i have not personally done any estimation, but the math suggests the numbers could be very large will stop we have 40 million borrowers, not all of them prior to 2013, but most of them. you have close to 40 million are worth darling on average 25,000 or $30,000, you are talking about over a trillion dollars. let's say for the heck of it that you lowered interest rates two percentage points on a trillion dollars and that's $20 billion.

per year. that is real money. it's probably less than that. i have seen one estimate of the deficit effect measuring in the tens of billions of dollars over a long time. i think it is a consequential amount of money. >> i think it's an important piece of information that we would have. i want to ask about the issue raised because i think it's a very important issue. it's an issue i hear from parents and students -- we are going to get to a point where if the rate of increase of what it costs to get a college education keeps going up, no matter what we invest, if we are thinking we are going to be able to help the dead erdman of someone like ms. jones, if it is going up higher, then i don't know. it may not be going up higher than health care, but this is a

big issue. how do we get that that issue and if we are going with our investment, how do we get to more accountability for these institutions to have to be market-based, think animatedly, and deliver quality education at a more reasonable price? to me, this is a big issue that's going to hit us no matter what we do here. >> i completely agree. the rising college costs is an american tragedy and we should do everything we can to make sure those people who are going to college this fall, the class of 2018, the class of 2019, that they do not incur a lot of debt. we cannot ignore the class of 2008 and 2009 who graduated almost by no fault of their own when they started as freshmen in 2004. they could not imagine they

would graduate into a financial crisis. that's something we had to on in both ends. >> she appreciates that, but we are going to look back on all of the pre-july 1 2013 because it's a large amount of individuals. have you answered that question for the record? regardless of what we do to help students get a good education, i'd like to know what your thoughts are and how we hold these institutions more accountable. >> we have a lot of senators coming, so i will have them answer for the record. senator baldwin? >> thank you. i appreciate both of you for hosting this hearing on such a critical issue. statistics are staggering

nationally with $1.2 trillion in student that. i look at the statistics for my home state of wisconsin. 70% of the students are graduating with an average of $28,000 and that. these numbers starkly demonstrate that there is a student loan debt crisis facing our nation. wisconsin individuals with a bachelor degree report making payments of about $350. graduate or professional degrees are making average monthly payments on their student loan of $448. that is an average figure. the ranks of student loan debt obligations is nearly 19 years for persons with bachelors degrees and 22 years for persons

with professionals agrees. as we have heard through your testimony and the question so far, these statistics are underscored by millions of personal stories and and notes and they affect personal visions as i have heard testimonies and roundtables. people literally deciding whether and when to start a family because of the impact of this debt and the career decisions ms. jones's talking about. there are a lot of folks getting a higher education because they want to teach or they want to do public service or work for a nonprofit. yet the level of debt constrains their career choices. we are little testimony and discussion on that.

you get out of college and start a business and put that off. who you get out of college and do you rent, do you buy, do you move back on with your parents? are people facing most choices in their late 20's and early 30's. do you buy a used car or used car? all of those have ripple effects throughout our entire economy. you have been talking about it and sharing your own story and so many have stepped forward to do that. this is a crisis would need to confront. i have in my very limited time to questions i wanted to pose about our current law on student aid. i've heard from a number of students who have had to hold him part-time work, sometimes

almost full-time work while studying all stop they are hit with something known as the work penalty because their incomes may exceed the protection allowance part of the federal financial aid under the higher education act. i am working on legislation that deals with this work penalty that would raise the income protection allowance. i wonder if you can speak to the importance on the availability of financial aid. >> there's no question manner as number of people returned after being displaced from the labor force in the great recession and took on part-time jobs and that's something we would be happy to discuss with you further. >> i certainly know that has been a reality in my home state

and many of the factories that were closed, there was not a supply of jobs without significant retraining. the other thing i wanted to follow-up on is the work you've done regarding servicers. anything from simply failing to provide quality customer service to ignoring some of the legal obligations around notice and payment offices and fees to certain officers. i've heard from people in wisconsin about getting quality information and the frustration and additional costs that come along with simply trying to pay back what they owe. a constituent from march field talk about loan she took out for her daughter's education and believe she had finished paying

it off years ago only to find out of the blue there were claims that she still owed money. i wonder if you can speak to how strong a requirement for student loan servicers like the ones that could give students valuable information. >> we learned a valuable lesson from the breakdowns in the mortgage servicing markets. we have learned as financial regulators from the past 10 years another very important lesson. in 2004, the student loan marketing association was privatized and operated as a private company for 10 years and has since restructured but despite the significant public benefits and subsidies that the corporation received, it was sally mae was ordered to stop breaking multiple laws. they continued to break those

laws. >> i have to move on. we have a number of senators waiting to be called on. if we could get an answer in writing, i would really appreciate it. senator warner, i know -- i want to thank senator warner and senator kaine for helping us get a witness from virginia today and i know you both have questions. we have several senators and votes will be called shortly. with any members want to go vote and come back, we will keep going as the boat is called. >> thank you very much. one of the statistics i found very interesting was in comparison to germany, your college costs 4.3% of the country's median income.

here, it is 51%. how does that affect the aspirations of students and those two nations? >> the lack of affordability of college may not only impact the students themselves, but it also might impact a broader family balance sheet. here, it is 51%. how does that affect the aspirations of students and those two nations? >> the lack of affordability of college may not only impact the students themselves, but it also might impact a broader family balance sheet. as we saw, the rise in student loan debt was not only because college was increasing in costs, but students themselves are bearing a larger share of total college costs compared to their parents or other sources. that means because people have less home equity, they have less savings adult with unemployment themselves will stop those costs got shifted to students, so it may impact the student and the family aspirations themselves about how they will prosper economically. >> does this reflect the philosophical issue over whether

it benefits the individual children the strengthens society as a whole? >> i'm not a philosopher, but i get your point at the positive externalities of a more educated population benefit all of us. there is some empirical literature to suggest that but at the same time, we need to make sure people are completing and able to repay their student debt and it doesn't displace other productive spending. >> let me put it another way.

if colleagues of ms. jones are looking at the challenges of debt and deciding i cannot pursue a path where i have the possibility of that equal to the millstone pulling me down because of the consequences and struggle, that not only impacts the individual but doesn't it impact the future prosperity of our entire society if folks in our own generation do not reach the fullest of their potential and contribution back to the economy? >> behind all the facts and

statistics is a broader question is the american tradition of entrepreneurialism and risk-taking. too many people feel they cannot take those risks and cannot start at small business out of the garage and cannot start a family and that something we should think about will stop >> let's think about how this amplifies the inequality of wealth will stop the students try to purchase a home and adding homeownership is the major builder of personal family wealth for working americans, doesn't that amplify the inequality of the society? >> there is a large gap in certain simulations of graduates who do have student debt and those who don't in terms of what those final outcomes might be for their retirement balances. traditionally, younger workers have been able to stash cash away for the home down payment or saving for retirement. they lose as compounding effects, so student debt, some of the repercussions to say the long-term debt could be real. >> i just wanted to make that point. the thing i most concerned about is the impact on aspirations. i live in a working-class community and children did the same high school and what i'm hearing is a feeling among high school students that there is not a path in which they have an opportunity to thrive and pursue

their potential which then affects the behaviors and high school as far as how hard they are going to work to make that path possible. this is the heart of the american dream and there's a full opportunity to thrive for every american, whether they are a child of the mechanic, the child of a janitor, or the child of a ceo. given the huge hurdle of college debt, is that compromising their vision? >> the change in aspirations from the stories we are constantly submitting to the public record illustrate many of the themes. >> i have to interrupt because we have both occurring right now and we will let you answer that for the record.

the senators next to be recognized -- stepped out, king, warner, white and. i'm going to go vote and come back. i suggest anyone on that list go with me and come back. >> thank you very much for hosting us critically. first, thank you for sticking with it and doing what is right to work hard and, like most of i'm going to go vote and come us to mull and i was in school, we did not have the capacity to turn to our school and say can i borrow $20,000? so most people are not of me situation where they have other options will stop i assume from what you are saying come you would be in the situation i was will stop fortunately for me in the 70's, we did more on

scholarships. i would not have gone to college. my little 93 person graduating class in michigan, my dad was sick and i didn't have a lot of money and i qualified for a tuition free scholarship and that got me to college. we don't have those anymore. unfortunately, the state of michigan is one of the highest at cutting higher education over 32% of the funding. college is interestingly have not increased tuition by that same 32%. we are seeing them take significant cuts. what i find interesting is the for-profit universities have increased their tuition twice as much as a book universities. 57% of the for-profit school grads are coming out with 30,000 more. 57%. there are a lot of things involved which we need to be looking at, but i don't think we should say in the meantime students should not have the same opportunity that all the rest of us have who want to finance the house.

i do also want to save we are asking questions, the good news for this refinancing bill unlike other things congress has done over the years, the bank bailout and all kinds of other things, this is paid for. that's the good news. we are proposing to ask everyone pay their fair share and create a fair shot for everybody. i have to say, have to turn to you and say i am so very surprised at your testimony. it seems that you are saying we should reduce the federal role we did not have the capacity to and we have too many graduates in our economy. i have to tell you that michigan has said there would be out of the one point 5 million jobs expected to be created in michigan alone in the next six years, one million of the million and a half will take education beyond high school. when i look ma say there are 600,000 jobs available right now, not all of those are full-year. we look at the need on stem, science, technology and engineering and math and where we are going as a economy, i am

amazed that you think we have too many graduates going into our economy. i wonder if you might speak our economy. about that.

>> certainly. if you look at the bureau of labor statistics data of people working with college degrees in the united states today, nearly half of them are in jobs that the bls has characterized as jobs that do not require four-year degrees. that statistic has to be taken with a little grain of salt. i'm the first to admit there are

judgment calls, but the unemployment rate among college graduates just right out of college last year was above the overall u.s. unemployment rate. ms. jones's story, which i think is a compelling story, is a story of someone who has worked hard, but she's making $10 an hour or $13 an hour. this goes back to senator wyden's great bill that wants to bring more information to the student before they make these wrong decisions. i see we are out of time, but i don't know who's running the hearing now all stop >> let me just say in conclusion that i don't hear anywhere from any business or anybody that we need less education for folks. thank you again mrs. jones and we will do everything we can to give you a fair shot to unload this kosow you can actually buy a house. >> thank you thomas senator wyden. as a richmond resident like you,

i appreciate your testimony. i don't want it to pass unnoticed. student loan debt has been the driving force of my decisions for last eight years of my life. according to my current repayment plan, it is projected to be for the next 25 years of my life well into the years for which i have been planning for retirement. that's a powerful statement. i would like to be a student in your class because someone who wants to be a teacher as much as you do, someone who has been willing to take on your shoulders that much debt and still fight to achieve your dream, someone willing to move halfway across the country to get a master street, i know you are and are going to be one fantastic teacher, so i thank you for your commitment.

i want to focus on the cost side of this equation. bringing down the cost of higher education, i support so many of the issues on loans, but i'm focused on these cost issues. we have probably done a disservice to students and families by not laying out in a more clear matter lower-cost ways to get skills or degrees to find a way to succeed. one kind of skill you can get is not a college degree but a licensed professional. the georgetown workforce center says seven percent of young workers with license or certificates are more than those with bachelor's degrees. it's not that you don't get education of high school, but sometimes the right education is

a welding society certificate will stop a cisco systems administrator assistant. i don't think we coach and counsel our young people that there are ways to get the credentials that able you to work that out the same as degrees. you cannot use military tuition assistance benefits. $4500 year to active duty for college or community college. degrees. you cannot use them to pay for a exam. more and more states are embracing the notion that students while they're in high school should be able to get

dual enrollment credits. you cannot use pell grant credits, you cannot use a current pell grant program to pay for college credits you can obtain for a really cheap cost in high school with dual enrollment. i was able to graduate from i was able to graduate from college in three years because of dual enrollment and it was enormous lee helpful to my family. they had to tell me when everyone was celebrating their colleges that you are going to have to talk your way into some place late. everyone that except you is too expensive. family. ap credits are a way to reduce college costs. two plus two programs -- a lot of students know -- this was not happening so much for me but a lot of students now are going to

j sergeant reynolds and then going to tcu. their total cost then shrinks but to do that, someone has had to sit down and counsel them about this at a path. you could get the same degree and it would be 30% cheaper about the community college. what this tells me is i'm concerned about that but i'm probably most concerned about this college cost issue. i think there are already a number of pathways to get

their something like seven different repayment options. how about streamlining those and making more information available. isn't that one thing we ought to do? >> the simplicity of how to repay your loan is a very important goal.

i'm struck -- i recently heard from a former employee, a student loan servicer, and they are evaluated harshly on how quickly they can get someone off the phone. that can lead to very quick interactions or being transferred, and you might get the shortcut answer rather than the answer that is ultimately utter bore the borrower and maybe even the economy more broadly if it avoids default. addressing those incentives as a major concern. >> i enjoyed your testimony and i will share with you a story you can use next time. and a former life, i was a talkshow host and i interviewed a financial aid officer of one of our colleges in maine and we talked about college tuitions and he said for the past 40 years, the cost of a good private college has been the same of it -- the same as a new ford. in the 40's, it was a thousand dollars and it went up in the 66 $3000 but something happened because a new ford today is about $20,000 in the cost of a private college education is approaching 60. i think we need to explore why that happens. have colleges come and tell us why what they sell has increased two or three times the rate of inflation and what it is they

are buying that costs so much because we are talking about the financing cost but the underlying problem is the cost of the product. as you point out, if tuition has risen at the rate of inflation since 2007, we would not be having this hearing. we've got to be focusing on that but i'm concerned in part of it is accountability. i want to be sure we apply standards such as gainful employment and graduation rates that we do not penalize those institutions taking higher risks with lower income and not college experience students. could you comment on that? financing cost but the

>> we are not exploring that specific regulation. i can say that aligning the incentives between the schools, between whatever loan programs, students are important and we want to examine how it can increase accountability so outcomes are approved regardless of where they come from. >> i think they all want to increase accountability. we want to make sure we don't we want to make sure we don't inadvertently penalize the students we want to get into the system by placing requirements that would this incentivize --

that would punish schools taking the risk to get the students and education. thank you very much. >> senator wyden. >> thank you for your years of passion and commitment to this effort. i think we understand our students are just getting smothered with these costs and these bills. they are up to their eyeballs in debt and this is having a huge effect on their ability to have the productive life they would want. it takes a toll in aim. a way of ways, recently, i was making a tour of college campuses and talking about legislation i will describe in a minute. a young woman came up to me and said ioc $2000. but i want to do more than anything else as i want to have a family and i'm not convinced someone who will marry me when i'm carrying around those kinds of debts. we talked about various kinds of options but i think that's representative of what's going on out there. this is taking an enormous toll, putting students and young

people in shackles. it seems like there are two pieces to the puzzle. the first is we've got to help students who are underwater. i appreciate what you and other students have had to say, whether it's refinancing or income-based repayment, i'm open to a variety of different approaches. the second is a different kind of issue, and that's making sure that not only do we get students in the door, but they get more value for their education. senator rubio, senator warner and i have introduced the student right to know before you go. for the first time, it would be possible for students to get this information in one place and heaven forbid, when students and families find out about a school doing a good job in terms of graduation rates, a lack of needed remedial education, if the school is doing a good job and another school is not doing a good job, the other school better clean up its act or heaven forbid, market forces

would kick in and that would advance the schools doing a good job. my understanding, and i want to understand with you. to get the kind of data you need to really do this right, it is going to take a piece of legislation, whether it's the bill senator warner, senator rubio and i have or something close. other senators have bills for purposes of government work, it is close enough. are we going to be able to get the eta we need to really set up this kind of seamless opportunity for students to get more value for their education along the lines of what i cap slice here this morning? >> first of all, let me say i'm very pleased you have introduced

this legislation. i have written publicly on several occasions that it's ironic the universities that are in the knowledge business are sometimes very reticent about providing knowledge about their own students, what they are learning, with their earning after they graduate. the irs could provide infamously useful information on the earnings of graduates by majors, by institutions and so forth without violating privacy or anything. why don't we do it? we can collect all of this data. the social security administration has the capacity to provide a lot of information. if part of the problem is

student financial burden, student -- should and the students know what is the probability they're going to earn a certain amount of money when they graduate? i think information builds are important, they are low-cost, they are consumer friendly, and markets work under when there's more information by all parties. the efforts of you, senator rubio and others are making is one of the few positive developments right now. >> i want to let senator murray have a chance to summarize because we're going to have a vote in a minute. i am something of a privacy hot around here. we have tried very hard to have significantly stronger privacy protections than you have today on a variety of these programs and my last request -- ms. jones, i followed your good work, we really hit this right and lock-in me privacy your generation deserves. intelligibility with people with

older loans. the debt reached $1 trillion last year, an amount of concern. you can read the rest of the story at politico today. we will have the announcement from the president today live on

the white house starting at 1:45 eastern on our website. house and senate will be in session today, gaveling in , noon easternour with general speeches. legislated speeches. an amendment providing more accountability in the veterans affairs department and re-authoring naps up rogue rams. -- nasa programs. housing 5:30, you will

see senators vote on three too long.udge when it shows up, it is not worse. it is better and less expensive. in the case of our navigation example, we had companies like garmin and they knew the smartphone was starting to take off. they understood it was possible somebody google apple and somebody else, a start up, could launch a navigation app. they said, we do not see a threat yet, so we will wait. respond, they took off and in months, you had millions of people saying, this is better and cheaper. which one will i choose? i then, it was too late to respond. we say incumbent businesses of

looking need to start much earlier into the lifecycle of new technologies and recognize that even before there is a product, a lot of experiments will be going on, many of which are very visible. kick starter and all sorts of other crowd funding. peoplel allow you to see playing with technology. that is the moment where they should get worried. >> how technology is changing the way companies do business, tonight on "the communicators." c-span two. >> we have the house gaveling in for general speeches in about 25 minutes. until then, a look at what is from this week morning's "washington journal." host: the congressional reporter from politico, lauren french, joining us this morning, thank you. guest: thank you for having me on. host: what do you think that

they will get done in the house and congress? guest: they should be finishing up the appropriations process. eric cantor put it out there in june on appropriations, talking surprisingly not about immigration, but about obamacare alternatives. you will also see a lot of talk about the v.a. and the prisoner swap. that is really going to be the focus of the next couple of weeks. hearings this weekend on the v.a. controversy, there will be a crossfire briefing tonight on the prisoner swap. it is the long last slog before the august recess, the last thing that congress needs to get done. host: houses coming in today to deal with the transportation bill. boberg dog -- boberg off -- bo bergdahl?

guest: a cold reception from the senators. they showed a video of him suffering, ma ca did. one of the words that was used to describe him. it did not change a lot of parts in the senate. it is going to meet a colder reception in the house, much less friendly to the white house than the senate. you have house republicans who have been -- some are more reserved and were on recess when the prisoner swap came up, but this is the first time they will really hear about it, talking to run-of-the-mill intel community members, even senior members of the republican party, they are saying that they feel misled by the white house, that the white house errored in not giving them the 30 days notice required for any gitmo prisoner transfer.

there will be a lot of issues coming out today. host: have we heard that yet from the house side? guest: absolutely. you have members coming out, and like i said, they were in recess, which always makes the house a bit more quiet, but they are saying it is the law and you have to notify us within 30 days if you are transferring any prisoner and they say the white house did not do that. there was that back and forth last week that they worked with congress and told congress. that was the line from the white house. then they backpedaled and said that they thought that if they

notified you, it would have been the to the press and his life would have been in danger. but the republicans are very concerned about these five prisoners who might pose damage to national interests. host: we heard some of that yesterday, if there was a marquee hearing of the week, chuck hagel coming up about the bergdahl swap with the taliban and. what do you expect will be the result of that hearing? what will be the result of that? host: first, --guest: first, there will be a lot more coming out of the private reefing with the more candid discussion. that is the classified information that was included that they will not be able to divulge publicly, but the administration will be making their case about why this was the proper action, why getting him home was the proper action at this point in time, and they will be grilled a little bit about why they did not give 30 days notice and you will be seeing tensions coming forward about journalists, about the white house feeling that they never get a fair deal from house republicans and republicans hitting back about the trust issues, that they don't trust

the administration to keep its word. host: we will be covering that hearing on wednesday, c-span3, and live on c-span radio. one issue that gained a lot of traction last week, the veterans health care agreement forged between john mccain and bernie sanders. what is in play there? host: --guest: that is going to come back to the house, giving the secretary more latitude to fire any employees involved in a controversy, incompetence, or underperforming. now the two sides really have to come together. the bernie sanders legislation also establishes what he considers to be more health centers across the country. the house and the senate will come back and negotiate that formally. you are going to see both sides hoping to bridge the gap. you have legislation from the house that they want to pass that will give veterans who are

not close to be a facilities or who have been waiting for longer than 90 days ability to leave the system and get health care treatment elsewhere with the government paying for it. that is a big priority for house republicans coming up. you are going to see the two sides kind of negotiating with the speaker to figure out what they can do to pass a bill in the v.a.. >> we welcome your calls on the --host: we welcome your calls on the agenda ahead. host: we spent the first 45 you can reach us on twitter.

one more issue before we get to calls. we spent the first 45 minutes talking about edward snowden. before the house left a past their pfizer reform bill. the intelligence committee to get up in the senate last week. is this likely something both the house and senate will come to an agreement on before the august recess should mark are they going to get intelligence reform done? host: --guest: it looks likely. the bill was actually very watered down and the silicon valley groups wound up jumping off supporting that build. this compromise bill will get action in the house and the senate, making this a priority.

people likely want to see action on the nsa and it is something where any time edward snowden does something where new revelations from his documents come out, everyone is very passionate about this issue. this is one of those things that would be not necessarily extraordinary as the time is running out, but it is a priority and you can absolutely see the sides coming together. host: 20 working days before they take a break for elections, how much of what they are doing now is aimed at looking good in that election? is everything sort of a political calculation from this point out? host: of course. unless they are counting on 25, absolutely. the house is going to take up the skills act this week, for high skilled worker training house republicans are going to do a obamacare alternatives. this is all about setting themselves up or the november election and doing bills that make their sides look good and making the other side look really bad. you are definitely seeing that. there is just not that much time left.

appropriations are the last check ox of the year, then the log -- the long august recess, and then campaign mode. intense national security issues. host: ken, republican line, go ahead. caller: one of the things i noticed about president obama, he took over student loans a few years ago and if you really want to help the students, all you have to do is reduce loan rates across-the-board. secondly, the obama administration is fearful of the va hospital story. people think it look like it could be a forerunner to obamacare run hospitals. host: on the student loan issue, today the president is going to

take another executive action on that? host: --guest: he is, he is going to announce the cap to prevent drowning out of students with loans who owe more like something around 75 hundred dollars, cap that 10% of monthly income to help students. it might take longer to pay off, but they will not be drowning in debt each month and worried about making these loan payments. default will destroy your credit for decades. flex --host: that is set for 1:45 this afternoon. lansdale, pennsylvania, hello, go ahead. host: -- caller: my husband has been out of work for a month and a half. we have been encouraging our congressmen to continue to ask

that it be brought up for a vote in the senate. it is falling on deaf ears. we hear the jobs report is improving slightly, wonderful for the people fortunate enough to be working, but for the millions who aren't working? they are still suffering. each month there are more monthly bills, more struggle. people are losing their homes and we are trying to get people to discuss it so that it can be brought up for a vote and it does not look like it is of enough importance. we have followed the weekly schedule of what is being discussed and it is going nowhere. it is still a very real problem for millions of people. host: what is happening on that front?

but the millions who aren't working are still suffering. each month there are bills and there is more struggle and people are losing their homes and we are encouraging, trying to get people to discuss this and it doesn't look like this is important enough, we follow the weekly schedule and it is going nowhere. it is still a very real problem for millions of people. host: what is happening on that front? guest: it really has stalled. this is an issue that was sent to the house by the senate but the negotiation of that bill -- the extension from the senate that never went anywhere has already expired. house republicans put it on the obama administration to offer job creation measures but the white house did not do so, they said it was a congressional responsibility. so that really stalled and a couple of weeks ago, -- it was really the talk of capitol hill. democrats were debating this every single day and those in the house are still carrying the mantle. it is on the priority list of having actual legislation. host: it seems from the economic issue there has been a shift from unemployment insurance to focusing on -- we saw a news conference that was on student loan debt and now the president is making the announcement today. guest: absolutely. house democrats and senate democrats did make a big push -- this was going to be the centerfold of their reelection campaign and they are still discussing this, but as they continue to rollout new priorities, and new legislative agendas, the old one kinds of get -- kind of gets recycled, and right now the topic of the day is student loans. this is what we discussed earlier, making good legislative priorities, pushing their agenda forward. that is what the house and senate democrats are doing this week. >> here is ron or didn't -- ronald in pennsylvania, independent line. >> they waited 30 days to swap in benghazi and in snowden, they want to fire the nsa and get snowden -- so far the oversight committee hasn't done anything. host: what is the status of that select committee and when will they meet? what is the status of that

select committee and when will they meet? guest: wit guest: with all the pomp and committee, that finding qualified staffers, who have the requisite security clearance is actually going to be a lot of work. they have to hire everyone and the democrats have not even announced their staff directory it. they are kind of in the process of gearing up and there are members of that committee that have already begun reviewing documents with oversight and 18 investigations into benghazi with the select committees, the documents and the work and the findings and now the members are slowly going through those but you should expect a couple of -- a lot of news out of that in the next couple of weeks. from jacksonville is on the democrat line, welcome. caller: thank you, good morning.

what i would like to talk to you about is the press briefing held every thursday, with the press. nancy pelosi will come out, i have seen her stand out there and she does most of the talking, but she takes any and all questions. and his group of six or eight people come out and all they do is give speeches about where are the jobs. and will take 2 questions question,llers last he will give three word answers. suggest we avoid his press conferences and still he starts taking more questions and giving answers. the palm of his hand and he knows it. bob is asounds like

very close watcher of c-span. differentout the styles, he talked about nancy pelosi and john boehner and his brief briefing. there are multiple briefings throughout the week, the republican leaders and the speaker of the house and the republican leadership is another. that one is generally a little bit longer than the one that you see with speaker john boehner. there are also conversations happening throughout the week, happening with the speaker and his staff and of course there's nancy pelosi. it is always a little bit funny. john boehner is known for having a very lighthearted attitude with the press so he will get a new haircut or a tie that you you will get a new haircut or a tie that you don't like, he will say something, and nancy pelosi will have your a sure hand and say, ms. leader. she likes the faces that she

knows. if you get a seat in the front -- make sure that you know -- she knows who you are if you have an important question. is it for you to get access to both of these leaders, and their staff? do they spend more time than a few minutes on camera? for the past leaders, those are people that i interact with on a daily basis, is because that is not really their style, for john boehner and cantor and pelosi -- you will boehner walking to the lobby a few times a week and he will say hi and he will answer questions, but the staff is very sociable. some of your best relationships are with the staffers and the leadership offices because they know what is going on, there is support in place -- >> and most of what they give you is on or off the record?

>> you go in speaking off the record but you can have a good you say, can i quote you on this? it is a constant conversation. >> we are in georgia with the independent line. go ahead. theer: my comment is on deplorable idea that at this point it is an achievement for president obama to take executive actions by making it easier for students to get loans. i am a college student and i can tell you that it is not an achievement. i have no idea why we are patting ourselves on the back by making it easier for students to get loans. pretty much all of my education would be free in most western industrialized nations. this is nott, taking congressional inaction into account but at this point, something productive has to happen. isn't he, what is he

proposing -- is it to make -- make it easier for people to pay off, they would not pay over 10%. guest: absolutely. it is not to make it easier to get student loans, it is to make it easier to repay a loan that you have, to ensure that students are not -- when students take out loans, especially students that are maybe first-time college students or don't have financial stability at home, they will often take out loans that, when they are thinking in the abstract, the repayment option seems like something that they can do but when they get their first job or pay rent, they might not be able to afford those repayments and the default issues are going to have to affect your credit in the long run. we see this happening with the repayment option, with the process in washington which is very widespread, they come out

and put congress slightly below cockroaches in terms of favorability. but the press is right under that. inaction, and of democrats, especially are very frustrated that the president action gone to executive because congress won't pass any of his legislative priorities. host: on that issue, the senate leaders, led by senator schumer onnew york announced a plan student loans. how does it look for them to come out to announce their plan, senate democrats, and for the president to take executive action? is her coronation between the two, -- is their coordination between the two? host: the senate has to recognize that whatever they pass -- if anything is going to , that on executive action is the phone line that we heard from the state of the union, he

knows that congress is not going to pass his agenda. legally, where he can, he will take executive action. they are doing their best to mess up the midterm elections but also try to work with republicans and that is not going to happen with student loans because the two sides are very far apart. to comeemocrats have out -- they are fighting tooth and knell to keep the house -- nail to keep the house. republicans are fairly certain they will take back the senate. anything that senate democrats do now has all of its eyes near the midterm election. host: this headline of the "new york times," veterans reach an accord -- senators reach accord easing worries over veterans measure. be the favorite

candidate, if there is a candidate, to take over the v.a.? >> that is -- guest: that is up in the air. cosgrove, and he announced over the weekend he would not take it. guest: this is a tough gig, because a lot of people are in the running but you will get hit over the head if you take over, like the irs commissioner. be, theyt was going to will take repeated hits from congress. so right now, this is a question that is actually up in the air. and 2is no real certainty of my colleagues did a story about that, this is a big question about who could take this over. this is still up in the air and the president is obviously looking for someone intently, but there is no name leaking,

this is going to be one of those things, one of those nominations that, when they find someone who will take over the job then they can pass with a majority in the senate, they will announce that but until then there will be a lot of crickets. host: and you say that there'll be legislation probably this week in the senate? guest: as long as this goes through, john mccain and john boehner should be able to pass all the procedural hurdles, but there are questions about the sanders --bernie really helpful for the senate, but they don't get in -- so they don't get into one of those fights they are so famous for. host: diane, welcome. caller: i would like to make three quick points. the first is about benghazi. i am sorry that the people lost their lives over there. but that is all that congress has, they said jobs when they

were elected and there are no jobs. and now they will not talk about the student loans. they will not do anything that they think will help the president. it is not going to help the president, it is helping our people, and we talk about the v.a. 2005, he wased in trying to see a specialist. in -- myrother died brother died in 2005 and the next week -- the next month in june, they signed his disability. this has been going on longer than obama. back in the bush administration they said they needed to look at things. those people who are suffering, we need to look at them too. host: peg writes -- this is more related to the bergdahl issue.

out a numberointed of members of congress have been calling for the release of v bergdahl, but the trade of five from guantanamo, they are now walking back the calls for his release. guest: john mccain is a good example, he said he would be in favor of a trade depending on the details. and now he has expressed in spurts over the weekend, he didn't want to do with these five members of the taliban. these are the five people the taliban requested and there are other detainees who are on track to be released that he would have rather seen the trade for or that the taliban had requested. this is not necessarily that bergdahldid not want ve

to come back, but they feel like they did not get proper notice and it is possible that the five members who are now under house arrest in qat quest we will leave this here. -- >> we will leave this here. now, the house will be in order. the chair lays before the house a communication from the speaker. the clerk: the speaker's room, washington, d.c., june 9, 2014. i hereby appoint the honorable steve womack to act as speaker pro tempore on this day. signed, john a. boehner, speaker of the house of representatives. the speaker pro tee: