without the federal perkins loan program, naoli says her opportunity to get a college loan education would have been -- quote -- "an illusory dream." today naoli is the first in her family to finish college and is now in her last year of medical school and is planning to work with those who are underserved in our urban communities. she finished by telling me -- quote -- "the perkins loan program helped me reach this point, and its existence is essential to provide that opportunity for other young adults wanting to believe in themselves and to empower their communities to be better. please save it." end quote. mr. president, you don't have to look very far to find the significant impact of the federal perkins loan program, the significant impact that it has on america's students. there are thousands of stories like the few that i just shared representing thousands and thousands of students who are still benefiting from the opportunities provided to them by this hugely successful program. let's show the american people and the 500,000 students impacted by this program that we can come

since 1958, the federal perkins loan program has been successful in helping americans access affordable higher education with low-interest loans for students who cannot borrow or afford more expensive private student loans. in wisconsin, the program provides more than 20,000 low-income students with more than $41 million in aid. but, mr. president, the impacts of this program aren't just isolated to the badger state. in fact, the federal perkins loan program aids over half a a million students with financial need each year and it does that across 1,500 institutions of higher education. schools originate service and collect the fixed-interest rate loans. and what's more, institutions maintain loans available for future students because it is managed within a revolving fund. since the program's creation, institutions have invested millions of their own dollars, their own funds into the program. and in addition to making higher education accessible for low-income students, the program serves as an incentive for people who wish to go into public service. by offering targeted loan cancellati

this bipartisan proposal will extend for one year the perkins loan program, allowing participating colleges and universities continue to -- to continue to service their borrowers. it will also allow current perkins recipients whoemain in the same academic program to be eligible to receive those funds through march, 2018. the legislation will also extend our provisions in the higher education act that aimed to support students, institutions and policymakers. finally, let me note for my colleagues and the american people, by reforming the perkins loan program, we ensure that this legislation is fully paid for at no additional cost to taxpayers. i am proud to lead this bipartisan effort with the gentleman from wisconsin, congressman pocan, who shares my commitment to helping other students achieve their dream of a college education. with that, mr. speaker, i urge my colleagues to vote yes on the higher education act of 2015, and i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves. the gentleman from wisconsin is recognized. mr. pocan: thank you, mr. speaker. i yie

in the meantime, as i said, students who currently have perkins loans will continue to have them while we continue the review. so our goal is to simplify the system, make it easier for students to apply for grants and loans, allow them to have year-round pell grants, allow them to not overborrow so much and to allow them to repay back their loans better, and the perkins loan is not as effective a loan in meeting those goals as the other loans that we have. so i object, at least until we have a chance to further continue our review in the senate education committee. thank you, mr. president. i yield the floor. ms. baldwin: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from wisconsin. ms. baldwin: mr. president, i am very disappointed that my effort to extend the federal perkins loan program was just blocked by my republican colleague from tennessee. and while i understand and frankly i share his desire to have a broader conversation about federal student aid as part of the higher education act reauthorization effort, i just do not think it is right or fair to end this program today

. >> perkins loan, yeah. could you talk about each of those in turn and whether or not the other two as well are ripe for reform and in the case of college work study not just the allocation but whether or not increases in college work-study might be a smart investment if our goal was to empower studentí in general who are already in college to achieve the baccalaureate and any observations you might have about whether or not there's anything pertinent in particular to persistence and degree attainment on the part of racial minorities. >> absolutely. i will start by saying something i didn't mention in my testimony is that many of you may know that campus-based programs are i think kind of on the chopping block as we approach this upcoming reauthorization so i want to state formally that we find them very valuable because of the campus-based nature. i think that's an important thing for me to say. i'll go through them individually as you asked. the first one, the supplemental educational opportunity grant, wh

many of these participate in one or more of the seog, federal work study, and federal perkins loan programs. i'll speak to the three programs and turn my attention to the various trio programs. let me start by noting that there are very positive impacts of these programs. i know there are proponents of rolling a lot of the programs into one loan, one grant, one work, to make the process more streamlined, and while that sounds great in theory, speaking to our campus-based people on the front line that deal with students, this does not hold true in practice. they are campus based and student based really. the institutions know their students and have flexibility under program requirements to award the funds accordingly. because of that, the relatively small dollars invested in the programs have a tremendously high return relative to retention persistence and graduation rates for underrepresented students. these programs level the educational playing field for underresourced students and often a deciding factor about a student completing his or her degree, but they are woefully underfunded, an

federal work study and the federal perkins loan program. all need based. these are deemed campus based because even though they are federal funds, the funds are allocated directly to participating institutions based on a formula. and the institutions then determine using federal guidelines which of their students receive the funds as well as those award amounts. the formula, the place where many believe the inequity exists is based on two principles. first the fair share portion of the formula, which primarily calculates the amount of funds an institution receives based on the relative need of their students. and second, a base guarantee that ensures that participating institutions receive at least as much as received in prior years. as a result of the latter, a portion of the funding is dedicated to maintaining traditional funding levels at specific institutions and does not necessarily reflect the national need. this has the effect of some institutions receiving higher allocations simply because they have been in the program longer. this funding pattern

guest: perkins loan has been around since the late 50's. llions of loans have been made for low income students, a lot of times their first i'm going to higher education in the family. really a strongly supported program, bipartisan. we did a resolution, with a republican from indiana, and a bipartisan letter trying to get this done and yesterday we did a bill that got on the floor that we arey passed and waiting for the senate to take action, but if it is not authorized by september 30, we want to have guaranteed funding for another year. it is a one-year extension but important for college students to have this in place. any university you talk to it is key. it is a really important program. host: one of the programs that gets reauthorized a year at a time? guest: it shouldn't become i think it has not been reauthorized for six or seven years, but these days, a year at a time is a victory and we took that as a victory and we found a funding source and were able to get it on the bipartisan way and i thought in both parties for getting this