For granted. Among the chattering classes all signs suddenly pointed to decline, markers ranged from the sale of the iconic Crystal Cathedral mega church to the increasing number of americans who consider themselves spiritual not religious. On the political side, the understanding that the evangelical vote is a king making vote is now dead. Few then dared except in the case of 2008 imagine the evangelical left would ever become the Democratic Party version of the christian right. The Obama Presidency promised a new twist on the old story of american a in politics. And obama First American address he spoke of the nation of believers. And religion which it been so often defined in evangelical terms had a special place in the pantheon of american worldviews but not an exclusive waste. Many of the issues that our the evangelical rights rise has not run their course. The issue of abortion especially will stay salient and might even become more so if roe v wade does not survive. Many voters on the left and center still view Christian Conservative activism as a threat to democracy and they are now entering their second generation. Obama offered to change the subject. He was better equipped than any president before him to draft american pluralism in its fullness that if obamas story is america story than his next turn is no more certain or the next Supreme Court decision. Thank you. Didnt know what it was, felt better, and then peritonitis set in was intensive care and my folks at that time thought they were going to lose me. So you didnt know it had ruptured . No. I had a stomach ache, it hurt, and then felt better. The pressure was relieved and i went outside and played. It was a saturday. By that night i was doubled over blind in pain. I remember asking my mother during that time, i asked her am i going to die . And she was honest with me and she sed said we dont know. But were praying and we believe that you will make it. Hi there. How are you . This is very helpful. I can see the sign, too. As you see we have cspan here which does a great job of opening up Public Events and Public Policy and the congress of the yitesd to the people of the United States. They do a wonderful job. Were pleased they are here. I am pleased that all of you are here. Let me begin by thanking the student leaders for being here. Welcome to Capital Technology university. Were honored and delighted to host this conversation with the congressman where you can share your ideas, thoughts concerns, issues concerning Higher Education that can help the congressman shape policy for the United States of america as well as for maryland. Were very proud of all of you. As you complete your education at your colleges and universities im confident and hopeful that you can learn the skills and the arts of professionalism, leadership, citizenship so that one day you may become steny hoyer. And have major impact on the drecks for this country. May i introduce the congressman to you very briefly. I will not read his bio. It would take the rest of our hour together. As you probably know he is our representative from the fifth Congressional District of maryland to the u. S. House of representatives. He has done wonders in supportling all the federal facilities around our county and area. He is perhaps best known for much of his legislation and leadership for environment natural resour protection, job creation fire safety Emergency Response organization, and he has had major impact on both domestic and Foreign Policy of our country. Perhaps his most enjoyable and challenging role in congress is that he is a remarkable consensus builder. He has served as if the majority leader in the u. S. Congress. He currently serves as the democratic whip. If you think about that for a moment he has the joy of developing consensus understanding, and support among all of his democratic constituents and reaching across the aisle to the republicans. If you can develop those kind of skills, im sure he will be very proud of you whatever profession you choose. Before i turn it over to congressman hoyer we do have to do our obligatory quiz. Ready . You dont have to pull out a pencil. All i need is one right answer. How many terms has young mr. Steny hoyer served in the United States house of representatives . He has served 17 sterms. I think back in 2007 became the longest serving representative in maryland. I wish you have a very successful roundtable. Im going to take president wood every place i go. This is my 34th year in the congress of the United States. Back in 1981, none of you were born in 1981. You were born, close though. When were you born . 81. Ok. But i wont ask around the second row there is when you were born but i am very pleased to be here. It is a wonderful time to be a student. I think any time is a wonderful time to be a student. But i will tell you this. In many respects your time is more challenging than my time. I tell people when i graduated from suitland high school, about 15, 20 miles from here in prince georges county, america was unchallenged. We had military might, almost everything. I graduated in college 1963. I worked at c. I. A. As a file clerk so i took maybe 11, 1 credits depending when they were offered for three years. And then i went full time my last two years. But nobody in that time thought that america wouldnt provide us with a job and with an unabated growth. And that we didnt have any competitors in the world. You had the bipolar world and soviet union. But otherwise economically there was no scommet tor of the United States. Frankly, we werent as focused obhow important it is to make sure that our best resource, our strongest resource that is, all of you were honed to do the very best thked. Now, we have to do that. Now we dont have a young person and a not so young person now im an old person to waist. The United Negro College fund, some of you have heard a mind is a terrible thing to waste. We dont have a Single Person to waste and we have to the extent of your ability hone it, empower it, expand it to the greatest extent possible because not for you. You will be the beneficiary. But for our countrys sake, for our competitive sake, for our growths sake. So thank you for being here. One of the issues i want to hear from all of you is we know i want to tell you a fact thats going to give you a little bit of pain. I got a scholarship to the university of maryland my first year. Which i promptly lost. Because i academically my first year was terrible. In any event i got a scholarship. And what i owed my first semester i was a commuter, remember working at night 86. That is a grimace. Thats what you pay for a book. Thats assuming a small book. A chapter of a book. Although were going to have a lot of bookeds on your kindle or on your ipad or something which i think is going to be a cost saver for you. But and i went to law scool, georgetown law scool and my tuition again i didnt live i dont think any of my colleagues lived on campus, was about 560 a semester. So about 1100. I got a Loan National defense education act which is a loan passed in the late 50s. Anybody know why it was passed . Youre too young. What happened in 1957 that really got americas attention that we may be not the only country on earth who could do really neat things . Vietnam . No. Vietnam was in the 60s. Spending cut nick . Spending cut sputh nick. I have a 1949 dodge car. That was my first car that i bought. The first car i had. Whoever bought it. I remember does anybody know where hill crest heights is . The radio came on and said the russians have put a space craft going around the earth. Sputh nick. And america was amazed and shagrind and had a sense of maybe there are competitors, maybe there is somebody. Weve got to get on the stick. And thats when eisenhower supported the passage of the National Defense education act. Now we have pell grants and other programs but that was the first. The reason being because he knew that we need to make sure that people had access to affordable Higher Education if they had the abilities to take advantage of Higher Education. And one of the challenges we have in America Today is we are pricing out too many people out of Higher Education. When the pell grant was first adopted it replaced 70 of the tuition costs. Now its closer to 30, 35, if youre lucky. Now its up to about 5400. And we increased it 37 back in 2009, i think it was. So we could make sure that so many of you could take advantage of college. My family didnt have the ability to contribute to my college at all. Zero. So what i paid for i either borrowed in the National Defense education act to go to law school but college was cheap enough that i could pay for it by just saving, by working. So i want to hear from you as to what you see as the challenges. Tell you obviously you know some of the things weve done. Weve increased pell grants. We ought to be passing a bill that allows students who went to school before you who encouraged an average of 30,000 in loan at a four year education. If you can refinance your house and get your Interest Rate down, we ought to be able to allow you to refinance your loan. How many of you have loans . A lot of you have loans. We also acted to try to cap what you need to repay every year with a based upon your income. So weve done a number of things. So enough talking from me. I wanted to really hear from what you have to say and what you suggest not only from your own personal experience but you talk to fellow students all over the state on your campus, with other students, youre all activists, you talk to other people. I would be really interested and rachel is going to take copious notes. Youre taking notes as well. Hi. Carington. Thats a very distinguished name. Carington reeves. When i was younger than you are, steny my name is steny, steny how many of you have heard of steny before . Zero. I hadnt heard it before. Its my my father was born in denmark. Steny is not a danish name they just made it up. But i was very skinny as a kid. And so i introduced myself as hi im steny hoyer and they would say skinny hoyer . I hated so i started calling myself so i started calling myself s. Hamilton hoyer. I thought i did that for a couple of years and then my friends got on me. Who do you think you are . But in any event, carington, thats a great name. I want to hear from you as to what you see as policies that we could pursue. And given of course we want to stop putting you deeply into debt which is an immoral policy as well as an intellectually bankrupt policy. You guys are inheriting a debt far beyond what i inherited and far beyond what we ought to be leaving you. We have a responsibility to do a much bter job managing our fiscal affairs. Who wants to start off giving me your thoughts on where we are . Good. My name is abdul from prince Georges Community college. I found out that over 70 of the people that come to my school our school are people that are just coming back. From work and they want to get licenses or want to get licensed on something. But many of them find themselves that they cant pay for their education. And the pell grants that we have right now dont support noncredit students ofment so im trying to find out is there a way that we can get a policy that can make people come back to school even when they dont have enough money on them and instead of taking out loans they can utilize maybe pell grants for noncredits or scholarships so they can follow their field. Because over time their work situation comes down to jobs or particular skills to go into the market. There are other programs like construction, truck driving, thai dont need credit classes. They need noncredit. But many cant afford them. Is there any policy theres discussion about that. Clearly theres been a lot of controversy about vocational, Technical Training particularly private sector. Prince georges county is public sector. But theres been a lot of discussion about that. I have an agenda i call make it in america. Its an agenda that talks about manufacturing, expanding manufacturing. Manufacturing leverages more jobs than any other enterprise. Automobile industry for instance correctly states there are nine jobs for every automobile worker person making a car there are nine other jobs that create it, maybe inshurens people, car salesmen, insurers, you know, road builders. I mean, you have cars they create a lot of other jobs. So that i am very focused on giving Technical Skills and urging for instance, welding. Welding may be one of those noncredit. I think it is. It is in construction. Does anybody know what a senior welder can make . Yeah. Six figures. A welder. Theres great demand. One of the things you do making things is you put things together. And welders are in great demand. And theres a shortage of welders. Now, you wouldnt think your parent probably didnt tell you i want you to grow up to be a we woulder. Right . But i will tell you right welder. Right . But i will tell you theres what were trying to do is keep the pell grant at its present level. The president would like toe see it expanded. We would like to see it expanded. One argument you ought to know, an interesting argument, the president im sure hears this. There are some who argue as soon as you expand the pell grant the cost of Higher Education goes up. In other words the more dollars you put into the system i. E. Demand, the supply does not expand as rapidly and therefore the cost goes up. And so there are many members who argue the problem with pell grants or another assistances it simply goes into increases college costs. Im on a board of trustees here and im obst. Marys College Board of trustees. Im the longest serving member of the board of trustees. We are having great difficulty keeping costs down, not raising tuition, while at the same time retaining quality faculty. Youve got this end Quality Support staff. And it is a real challenge. So that there has been a focus on academic credits. Academic focus. But if were going to expand as an economy, we also need to have opportunities and availability and affordability for, as you say, noncredit courses but which very much lead to Economic Growth in our society. What i would like to ask im a student and our Community College is more than just a Community College. The presentation of International Students is high as well as a variety of all ages, from seniors to juniors and this is the reason why we are emphasizing the noncredit classes is because there are many students who start taking credit classes and they drop out because either they cant afford either they have two jobs and then they end up dropping out of school. And when they try to come back what happens is the tuition has increased and that makes it even more harder. So what i do is i try to attend as many meetings as i can and i try to encourage other students to get involved as well. Many students come to college thinking im here because my parents told me to come here. But we want to change that mentality that college is more than just going there, taking classes, and going home. This Community College is like my second home. So thats why im very enthusiastic about the idea of trying to find solutions for all the students not only internationals. I came here i didnt speak any english for example and i had to take at least 30 noncredit classes, english math. I had to pay out of pocket and i had to take a loan to start taking my credit classes because i just stopped working. Unfortunately i lost my job and i had to take a loan. And right now im completing 70 credits and i am still struggling with the bills. And when i applied for Financial Aid they say my husband makes too much money so i i say well i dont see the money. Thats the good news. So its not just me. Its many other students who are not coming back to college because they have other issues. So thats why we want to see if theres opportunity for them to get at least a discount or highlight one of the challenges for policymakers, however. And remember i meant private sector schools. One of the problems is that some of the records show that there are a number of private sector providers that who students dont complete. Who are there for a short period of time. But enough time that the tuition is used and they dont get reimbursement but they dont get a degree or they dont get a certificate of profishsy in welding or construction or plumbing. And because the program does not have enough money to meet the needs of the numbers of students who are in need of that help there is a reluctance to expand eligibility. Based upon completion rates and employment rates. As you know, theres some requirements. But it is a real issue because you also mentioned parents. The reason i mention welders all the time being able to make 100,000 plus is because that is a very important enterprise but most parents would not think of well, thats something. Plummers make a lot of money. Electricians make a lot of mun. And its not just about making a lot of money. Its performing a service thats absolutely essential. And we need to think not just in terms of academic programs, the traditional but also the skills that are necessary to run any kind of complicated society. Congratulations on being a student trustee. Somebody over here. Im going over to this side. Im going with the old guy. Thank you sir. Matt Williams University of Maryland University college. First caveat, a