Tweet
When the House passed SAFRA in September 2009, only four Democrats opposed the bill. One of them was Paul Kanjorski, who represents a district with Sallie Mae offices. Kanjorski’s press aide has told the media that the Congressman may never announce his vote, just vote on the bill and leave the chamber.
Sallie Mae lobbyists are starting to waver on whether or not canceling subsidies for the big banks would actually result in the loss of jobs, but clearly they hold enough sway over Kanjorski that his vote is in question. But it’s important to understand what benefits there are for the residents of Kanjorski’s district by ending the privatization of student loans. The House Education and Labor Committee has provided a helpful document showing the investment in Kanjorski’s 11th Congressional district, under the bill:
Invests $57,403,513 in Pennsylvania’s 11th Congressional District, and $324,875,370 in the state of Pennsylvania over 10 years to increase the maximum annual Pell Grant scholarship to $5,550 in 2010 and to $5,975 by 2017. Starting in 2013, the scholarship will be linked to match rising costs-of-living by indexing it to the Consumer Price Index. This includes an investment of $13.5 billion to fund a shortfall in the Pell Grant scholarship program due to increased demand for the scholarship.
Invests $750 million to bolster college access and completion support resulting in $20,838,360 over the next 5 years in Pennsylvania for students. It will increase funding for the College Access Challenge Grant program, and will also fund innovative programs at states and institutions that focus on increasing financial literacy and helping retain and graduate students
Makes federal loans more affordable for borrowers to repay by investing $1.5 billion to strengthen an Income-Based Repayment program that currently allows borrowers to cap their monthly federal student loan payments at 15 percent of their discretionary income. These new provisions would lower this monthly cap to just 10 percent for new borrowers after 2010
Invests $19,407,820 in Pennsylvania’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Minority-Serving Institutions to provide students with the support they need to stay in school and graduate
You can come up with whatever reasons you like to oppose the health care bill, but putting the needs of lobbyists over $57 million for students in his district is just a craven one.
4 Comments
Support this site!
Subscribe to the newsletter
Advertise on Firedoglake
Send
us your tips
Make us your homepage
About FDL News Desk
They ate up most of the money that would go to students to pay for the fix to the excise tax that they negotiated with the unions.
I think only $19 billion goes to students — mostly to Pell grants I believe, though some goes to historically black & minority colleges.
more like $39 billion in the numbers I’ve seen – $19B goes to deficit reduction and paying for health care
Here’s a remarkably similar piece published yesterday looking at the benefits of the health insurance reform for Kajno’s District: http://www.abigfatslob.com/2010/03/weighing-vote-kanjo-protecting-sallie.html
I like the approach here even better, taking direct aim at the benefits of the specific legislation to which Kanjo objects. It is important to remind Kanjorski that the benefits to the hundreds of thousands of residents of his District should not be weighed against the hundreds of thousands of Sallie Mae dollars which have flowed to him and his pet projects.
interesting assertions about Sallie Mae and job losses. I am aware of some Democrats’ claims that there will be no job losses. I am not aware that Sallie Mae representatives have ever said that there would not be job losses. In fact, on page 3 of their 10-K, filed only a few weeks ago, it states:
“If SAFRA becomes law, a significant restructuring which would result in significant job losses throughout the Company and we will be required to adapt to our new business environment.”
Last time I checked, companies take statements in their SEC filings pretty seriously. Certainly, it is the prerogative of Congress to enact this legislation but any assertion that this will not have significant job impacts across the country are simply false.