rhode island's great senator, claiborne pell, first proposed the grants that now bear his name. he envisioned a grant that would enable low-income students to attend our country's wonderful colleges and universities so that they, too, could share in the american dream. why do these far right extremists in the house want to snuff that out? in 1976, the first year that pell grants were fully funded, a full pell grant paid 72% of the cost of attendance at a typical four-year public college. today a full pell grant covers just 34% of those costs. even that they're willing to attack. this vital assistance from pell grants can often mean the difference between being able to attend college or not, with many families in rhode island and across america still struggling in this struggling economy, we should be looking for ways to strengthen pell grants, not weaken them. america needs more college graduates, not fewer. during my time in the senate, we've taken steps to improve the pell grant program. after four years of level funding under president bush, we began to increase the maximum g