In buying homes, and investing in their futures, in pursuing their american dream. Reduced purchasing power due to high Student Loan Debt not only holds back families daytoday spending but keeps them from making those large investments. I believe its irresponsible and shortsighted for us to think that we can saddle young people people, the true engines of our economy, with this burden and maintain our position as the worlds most powerful economy. Historically the United States has done things differently. We were the leader in expanding college student. From the g. I. Bill following world war ii to pell grant in 1980 we have taken bold steps to ensure that americans have access to college regardless of their ability to pay their way entirely on their own. We created these programs because we understood that an educated work force is essential to our nations economic competitiveness, the most valuable Natural Resource any nation on the planet has is the genius and mental acuity of its people. Without highly killed workers, without trained minds, without that opportunity that comes with Higher Education, america simply wont be able to compete as well in the global economy. The cost of college in america puts our young people at a disadvantage compared to their peers. We are not leading. We are lagging. And these obstacles to a College Education, its not a level playing field. We are disadvantaging our young people in their fight to compete and lead against other nations who are doing so much more. Take this important data point. More 51 of the Median Income is the cost of college in the United States. While the cost of college in germany is just 4. 3 of that countrys Median Income. In canada, its about 5 . In england, its about 6 . Compare that to us. 51 of Median Income is the United States, less than 7 in canada and england and germany, our competitors. We should be doing everything in our power to encourage forthcoming generations to pursue Higher Education so we dont slide further in global rankings and compromise our ability to compete. Because where we used to lead the globe in percentage of our population with a College Education, now we lag, and im telling you, we cannot be the leading economy if we are the lagging nation in education. I want to commend my colleagues, including senator harkin and senator reed, warren and gillibrand who have been so active even before i came to this body in calling attention to this issue. I urge my colleagues to step up and be a part of preserving this grand american tradition of College Access which is so essential to the other grand tradition in our nation of social mobility. No matter where youre born, no matter what your economic status, no matter what your color or your creed, this is the nation that if you have grit and toughness, discipline and hard work, where you can make it and we are a country who will remove those obstacles and allow genius to be made manifest. I hope that we can begin to get bills like this that are so commonsense, this idea that we can refinance student debt, to the point where we can discuss the bills on the floor and they can escape that trap, that trap of filibuster. And, madam president , before yielding too much id like to just the floor id like to cover another topic very quickly. I want to take this moment to spret express my deepest condolences to the families of the victims involved in a tragic tractor trailer accident saturday night on the new jersey turnpike. My thoughts and prayers go out to the individuals injured in the crash and i obviously wish them a full recovery. We owe many thanks to the Emergency Personnel who responded to this weekends accidents accident and countless others who worked tirelessly along our highways to keep them safe. During times like this, though, we must ask ourselves, could this tragedy and so many others in new jersey and across our nation along our highways, could these tragedies be prevented with common sense . Its too early to tell, but i am grateful to the National Transportation safety board in investigating this particular accident thoroughly and i eagerly await their findings. But in the meantime, it is worth reviewing what we do know. Larger and heavier trucks cause greater damage when collisions occur. Its just physics. This is why there are rules governing truck size and weight limitations on our highways. I have concerns about any attempts to increase truck size and weight limits, and i hope that sound data and science will inform our decisions. The decisions that this body must make on that issue. But another major highway problem, one that i know is affecting the lives of families coast to coast, is the problem with driver fatigue. Studies show that fatigue contributes to 30 to 40 of all major accidents, all major truck accidents. 30 to 40 of truck accidents are contributed to by fatigue. When drivers dont get enough rest, when theyre more tired, they are much, much more likely to get into an accident. Thats why there are limitations in place on the number of hours Truck Drivers may work in any given week. Im concerned about any efforts to weaken those rules, which would allow people to push the limits of human exhaustion even further, and will therefore, create an environment where more accidents are possible. The bottom line is that truck accidents and the deaths and injuries caused by them are actually increasing in america. I look forward to working with my colleagues in the senate to take a serious look at what we can do to improve the safety of our highways. Thank you, madam president , and i yield the floor. The presiding officer the senator from oregon. Mr. Wyden i come to the floor as we get ready to vote on the veterans bill to make several points and would like to begin by commending senators sanders and ca mccain. They have obviously acted quickly, they have acted responsibly and they are taking up some of the most extraordinary concerns that really have come to light in the last few weeks regarding the access our veterans have to medical care. I think it would be fair to say that every single senator, every senator, is grateful for the immeasurable sacrifices that veterans make for the nation. These are men and women who give up years of their lives to serve our country, willingly head into harms way and they suffer misand mental wounds all too often. And many of the veterans of the wars in iraq and afghanistan and ive seen this in my home state have volunteered for three and four and five tours of duty. Whats indisputable is this the senate understands that when our veterans come home, the Health Care Systems the Health Care Services they receive must be second to none. I believe that strongly and i believe it is a concern widely shared here in the senate. And that is why, madam president , the reports of long wait times and falsified records are so appalling. The v. A. Audit that came out this week showed, for example, how hard veterans in my home state of oregon have been hit. More than 3,000 oregon veterans couldnt be seen by a doctor within 90 days at the portland v. A. Facility. Nearly 3,500 faced the same wait times at the roseburg v. A. Facility. Many oregon veterans who rely on the boise and walla walla facilities got similar treatment. And investigation an investigation, moreover, is underway to determine how things deteriorated and deteriorated so rapidly. Its pretty obvious that these kinds of findings, madam president , are inexcusable and they are unconscionable, and veterans deserve the best, and senators sanders and mccain deserve credit for working in a bipartisan way, a way that is too rare here in washington, d. C. , to address this challenge. It is never easy to work in a bipartisan way, and i commend them. I want to also raise today one part of the bill that i believe has to be resolved and can be resolved before the legislation gets to the president s desk. The legislation currently directs many of our veterans to medicares doctors and specialists. Now, at first glance that might not raise questions, but i wanted to bring up the possibility of some unintended consequences. Right now, madam president , there is a mandated 2 cut on payments for Medicare Services because of acrosstheboard sequestration, and that is still in effect. However, that particular spending cut, that spending reduction, does not apply to treatment for veterans. So in effect and i know this was completely unintended this could create an incentive for physicians and we already dont have enough of them caring for seniors, who rely on medicare it could create an incentive for doctors to take the veteran patient over our nations seniors. And i think no senator, no senator, wants that to happen. I have talked about this with chairman sanders, with senator mccain. They certainly dont want that false choice. I think it would be fair to say no one wants to see seniors pitted against veterans, and all seniors want senators want the best possible care for both our older people and our veterans. The problem, however, and all senators are familiar with this medicare patients often are already waiting in line to see their doctors. In fact, many of the underperforming v. A. Facilities are located in communities that have difficulty meeting the current demand for care. This is especially true in some medical fields that are absolutely crucial for our veterans, particularly primary care and mental health. Now, its important to note that the other body, the house, has picked up on an idea that i and others have advanced in order to resolve this matter. So this is an opportunity for the senate and the house in a bipartisan way to Work Together. Ive talked to leaders of the Veterans Committee in the house, and my sense is that we now have the house fully supportive of a way to resolve this issue and ensure that despite the fact that the veterans funds are not sequestered and the seniors funds, the medicare funds are, there would be a way to resolve this, and that simply be to stipulate that any credentialed provider could contract with the v. A. To treat veterans. That way, in effect we would ensure that both seniors and veterans would get the care that they need. It in effect would put the senate and the other body on the same wave length, and its a simple fix, madam president ,. We just allow our veterans to meet with any licensed clinical provider, not just the medicare providers. So, in closing, i want to commend again chairman sanders, senator mccain for firstrate work accomplished at really landspeed record timing. As chairman of the finance committee which has jurisdiction and a long history with respect to medicare, i want them and our cleation in thcolleagues in they know that the finance committee is very anxious to work with all concerned to make sure that the feignal version of this legislation the bill that we hope goes to the president s desk as soon as possible that it addresses what is best for both veterans and seniors. Im confident that by working together, democrats and republicans, senate and house, we can achieve that revolution before the bill gets to the president s desk. Madam president , with that, i yield the floor and i yield the floor. Ms. Cantwell madam president . The presiding officer the senator from washington. Ms. Cantwell thank you, madam president. I rise to express my disappointment in todays earlier vote that we werent able to pass the student refinancing legislation. I want to thank my colleague, senator warren, for sponsoring that bill and for my colleagues who did support that, and i hope that we will have chance to bring it legislation up again and get bipartisan support and get it passed. We can agree that education is the gateway to opportunity. I was the first in my college to go to college and went to school with the help of financial aid. I know how important it is to many students in the state of washington that we help them makmake education more affordab. Student debt has quadrupled over the last ten years. Many students in my state are anxious about the situation and want to do something about it. Student debt has even surpassed credit card debt. The fact that student debt is enough to pay every american tion credit card balance and still have 450 billion left over tells you how much debt is being accumulated on behalf of students, just to get an education, just to basically make their way in a changing economy. Arntiondz you know, we did live in an Information Age and it means that everybody having a good base education and being able to dapt a adapt as new infn comes along that changes industry is going to be important. Student debt is the second most important debt only behind mortgages puts a drag on our economy. We scwhrus a roun just had a roe state of washington and these students talked about how they were trying to invest in he in r own skills. And many of the stories they told were not really out of the ordinary but i think it is something we dont think about. These individual were talking about how they were trying to get an education. Other people in their family, their brothers and sisters, were trying to get an education and their parents were also trying to upgrade their skills because in an informationage economy, thats what happens. Everybody has to upgrade their skills. So these students are trying to do something. But i was really moved by one student who said, i have a debt that seems to be the size of a mortgage for me, but i dont have the house that goes along with t he was trying to say, im coming out of college with incredible debt and how am i going to even afford the basic things that people look forward to, maybe not right after graduation but as they start their careers and they start to move forward . These are individual whose contribute to our economy. They buy cars. They buy homes, everything. But this individual, a graduate of Central Washington university, told me that he pays the same amount for rent as he does for Student Loans every month. So in Washington State, the average student borrower owes more than 23,000 before they graduate. Thats an increase of 22 over the last five years. 4,000 for the average student borrower at the university of washington. So over the next weeks, thousands of students in Washington State will walk across and get their diploma, but when they accept the diploma and go into the world of opportunity, they will also be going with a lot of debt. We also heard from another student at the university of washington how at this point in her career she graduates the debt will be almost 100,000. So she wants to pursue a career, but when she thinks about how much she has to pay on that student loan, thats going to affect that. In fact, during her time at the university of washington, there were points in which she worked 60 hours a week. Now, i dont know how anybody can continue their education and work 60 hours a week. So these are students who want to be able to refinance and pay down. In this case, somebody who has a 6 or 7 , this bill, legislation, would allow them to refinance. The legislation, an undergraduate of 30,000 in Student Loans would save almost 5,000 over the life of their loan by refinancing, if it was 6. 8 to the current undergraduate direct Interest Rate of 3. 86 . So that is real dollars to these individuals. That means muchneeded help for 25 million borrowers across the country. It could save, on afnlings on a, 2,000 per loan. So our students from everywhere across the state i dont know if we have that chart the university of washington and pacific in the Pacific Northwest took action into their own hands and produce add report. The report showed that the Typical University of washington student would have to work 54 hours a week for a full year to pay for one year of student education. So this is im so proud that these students did their own report and got it on the front page of the Seattle Times because it spells out what we already have known. The days when the students could raise the amount of money they needed for education by doing summer yobs i jobs is gone. The burden is just impacted students. There is no way they can work their way through college at 54 hours or 60 hours a week and be able to do their academic work. So entrepreneurial activity among 20 t 20to34yearolds people are Student Loan Debt are lase likely to buy house than those without. If you think about it, if this is what a generation of americans are going to be faced with for the next decade or two, then thats going to have a Ripple Effect through our economy for several years. A recent study by the Brookings Institute found that student loan borrowers are 60 to 70 less likely to apply for graduate school than those without student debt. So, again, now we have another complexity. Madam president , i look at this issue and i look at the fact that we have a worldwide demand for 35,000 new airplanes. We need 20,000 new workers in the aerospace industry. We have demands for computer scientists, Something Like 300,000 a year. We only graduate 70,000. I look at it and say, why arent we helping to finance everybody who wants to get an engineering and Computer Science degree . Why arent we trying to figure out a way to make that more affordable . Thats exactly what we need to do, make an investment in education. But we cant make an investment in education on the backs of thee students when theyre coming out of college with this much debt or trying to struggle even to learn these careers that are so vital to our economy, and they have to choose between working and actually studying. Wed rather they commit themselves to these careers and these educations so we can have the workforce of the future. Now, i know some of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle didnt support