Mr. Alexander mr. President i ask consent to vitiate the quorum call. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Alexander thank you, mr. President. I ask consent to that the senator from colorado, senator bennet and i along with the sthor from maine senator king, the senator from new jersey, senator booker the senator from georgia, senator isakson and the senator from North Carolina, senator burr, be able to engage in a colloquy on Higher Education for the next halfhour. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Alexander thank you mr. President. And i i further ask mr. President , unanimous consent to use a piece of demonstrative evidence in my remarks. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Alexander thank you mr. President. Mr. President , the senator from colorado michael bennet, and i have been working for a year to make it easier for 20 million American Families who fill out a the federal Application Form for grants and loans for colleges to make it easier for them to do that. And the piece of demonstrative evidence that senator bennet and i have been carrying out in tennessee and in colorado is in. This is the form that 20 million americans fill out. It is familiar to many families. It is 108 questions for those families and its important to them because about half of the American Families who have students in college have a federal grant loan to help pay for college. The problem with this is that its generally unnecessary. Senator bennet and i were at a Committee Hearing of our health, education, labor and pensions committee, and we heard four witnesses from many Different Directions in our country say that we only needed two questions to answer 95 of the information that we needed to know about whether we could make a federal grant or loan to a student infrastructure from wisconsin who wanted to go to Community College. So we are introducing the fast act and it will turn these 108 questions into two. One about amount of Family Income and one about the size of family. And it will free it will free students and their families from the dreaded fafsa. It will eliminate thousands of hours of busywork by Guidance Counselors by by College Administrators by parents by accountants. And ill use a specific example. On friday im going to tennessee with president obama whos been attracted to tennessee because weve become the first state to say to all of our High School Graduates that Community College is tuitionfree. How can we do that in tennessee . Well the tuition like in most places in the country is about 3,600 for per semester. And the pell grant can pay up to 5,600. And so for about half the students theres only a small gap between the amount the federal pell grant pays and what tuition costs of so the state will make up the difference. But heres the catch. The major obstacle to tennesseans who want to take advantage of the new Tennessee Promise Program is this 108question form. The president of the Community College in memphis southwest Community College told me he thinks he loses 1,500 students a semester because of the complexity of the form. They wont fill it out. So its a terrific example of how the federal government with good intentions, have built up over the yearsy enormous amount of paperwork thats getting into the single greatest need our state has which is to have more of our students better trained so the businesses that are attracted there with good jobs will be able to hire people who are properly trained. Now, in addition to that our bill does the following things. It not only eliminates the 108 questions and replaces it with two it tells families earlier in the process. For example if you have a daughter whos a junior in high school now youll be able to go online and find out answering two questions how much money youre eligible for in grant and loan. Now you have to wait until the second semester of your senior year. The next thing it does, it streamlines the federal grant loan programs by combining two federal programs into one Pell Grant Program reducing the six different federal loan programs into three. One undergraduate loan program one graduate loan program one Parent Loan Program resulting in more access for students. Fourth it enables students to use pell grants in a manner that works for them. They can use it yearround. Now you cant use it for three straight semesters. And at their own pace. Next it discourages overborrowing. Too many students borrow money they dont need to borrow to go to college. For example, youre entitled under the federal rules to borrow the same amount of money if you go fulltime as if you go halftime. That makes no sense and it saddles students with debt that they cant pay back. And, finally it simplifies the repayment options. Now there are nine different ways to pay back repayments. We suggest two. And senator king and senator burr have their own bill which theyll be introducing today and talking about a little later about streamlining repayments. So im delighted to have been working with senator bennet. I want to congratulate him. His background as a Denver School superintendent and as a father has made him a very effective advocate for this. Weve listened to to educators and parents in our own states. The bills been out there now for more than half a year. Weve attracted other sponsors, including senator booker and senator and senator isakson. And we hope that other senators will want to join in. And finally i would say before going to senator bennet that as chairman of the Senate Committee that handles Education Health education labor and pensions, that were ready to move on this. And as soon as we can finish our work on fixing no child left behind, which weve been working on for six years and had 24 hearings on and almost all the members of the committee who are there now were there last year when we reported the bill, as soon as we can finish that work, were ready to move to reauthorize the Higher Education act to deregulate Higher Education and to start with the fast act and with the legislation that senator king and senator burr have promoted. So mr. President i thank the senator from colorado for his partnership on this and is a salute him for his leadership. Mr. Bennet mr. President . The presiding officer the senator from colorado. Mr. Bennet thank you mr. President. I am delighted to be on the floor today with, among others, senator alexander who has worked so hard on the bill were talking about today. Through the chair, i want to wish him well in his new role as chair of the health, Education Labor Committee on which i serve. Hes quite right to have said this bill came out came to us as a result of testimony in front of that committee by a variety of witnesses but all of whom agreed that the Current System is completely unwieldy. And the also like the other cosponsors, senators booker, burr isakson and king, for joining the efforts and for being here today as well. You know, i first became aware of this problem when i was superintendent of the Denver Public schools and we had a couple that very generously donated 50 million 50 million for scholarships for kids that were graduating from Denver Public schools and who had applied to college. And one of the things we learned in that process was how terrible the process was for filling out the Financial Aid forms for the federal government. And that was a requirement that we had for people to be able to be eligible for this scholarship. We literally had to put new rooms in our schools in our high schools and staff them with people in order to fill out these forms. And every year, tens of thousands of students and parents in colorado, and millions more across the country, fill out the fafsa as part of the College Application process. It is the gateway to Financial Aid. By some estimates over 2 Million People that are eligible for fafsa for Financial Aid pell grants dont get it simply because of the complexity of the form. And with unanimous consent id ask to show some demonstrative evidence mr. President. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Bennet here is this years form. Its a different color than the one we had last year. But this is the form that a student has to fill out with its 108 questions. This is the instruction manual that goes with the form that is something in the neighborhood of 6 pages long. Its very tiny print. 60 pages long. Its very tiny print. And to be honest with you the ridiculousness of this form would be funny if it wasnt for the lost time, money and energy our country spends on it. Heres some of the examples of the questions families have to put up with on this form. Several times there are questions about income. Weve been told by the witnesses that we had that we only need two questions. There are a number of questions just about income, investments and assets. Each requires notes and instructions which are contained in here. Question 36 what was your and spouses adjustment gross income for 2014 . Question 37, enter your and spouses income tax for 2014. Question 39, how much did you earn from working in 2014 . Question 40, how much did your spouse earn from working in 2014 . Its ridiculous. The questions become even more more complicated. Question 42, as of today what is the net worth of your and your spouses investment including real estate but dont include the home you live in . Thats the kind of reaction we get all over the country when we talk about this. And at home. The the instruction form here says for question number 43, the net worth of business and investments or farm. Business or farm value includes the current market value of land building, machinery equipment, inventory, et cetera. Do not include your primary form. Do not include the net worth of a feanlowned and controlled family owned and controlled Small Business with more than 100ful time orfultime equivalent employees. And just to make it really clear, in dark bolded print it says business farm value minus business farm debt equals net worth of business farm. This is as complicated as any tax form mr. President. And at a time when the demands of the Global Economy require us to have more College Access, not less its a shame that this bureaucratic piling up of questions is making it harder and harder for people to go to college. So i think this is going to be great for our students. Well get it down to a postcard thats just got two questions on it. And the estimate is the estimate is that the time saved by moving away from this existing form is the equivalent of 50,000 jobs. 50,000 jobs that could be spent actually providing College Guidance to young people who will now have the benefit of knowing, as senator alexander said so eloquently, will now have the benefit of knowing what Financial Aid theyll be eligible for in their junior year before they even apply to college, rather than wait until their senior year until theyve already been admitted to college. That makes no sense to the people that we represent and theres a reason for it mr. President its because it makes no sense. So my hope is that this is a bill that well be able to move this year. And again, i want to thank senator alexander for his tremendous leadership. And then i will yield the floor i think to i yield back to senator alexander. Mr. Alexander thank you mr. President. I thank senator bennet. And id like to send to the desk the Higher Education act that senator bennet and i would introduce with the cosponsorship of senator booker, senator burr, senator king, and senator isakson. And, madam president mr. President , in this in this colloquy, id like now to recognize the senator from new jersey for five minutes to comment on the bill if he would like. I see him. The presiding officer the bill will be received and appropriately referred. Mr. Alexander thank you very much. And following that, the senator from income flc and the senator from maine North Carolina and the senator from maine who are cosponsors of this bill who are here but they also have a separate bill on income repayments which they will discuss. Mr. Booker i want to thank senator bennet and senator alexander for their work on this legislation. Its going to keep our help our nations students make a better smarter more informed decisions about Higher Education. Historically, the United States has been the leader globally in expanding college opportunity. We understand that an educated work force is essential to our nations economic competitiveness. Without highly skilled workers america will not be able to compete in the Global Economy. And the average price of a College Degree in this United States is climbing, about 13,856. And please put that in perspective with our competitor nations, nations who are keeping the cost of college low knowing that their longterm competitiveness as a country depends on the education of their children. Nations like the United Kingdom that has a College Education that costs less than half of ours. Nations like germany where kids pay a mere 933. The average american student now is graduating from college with around 29,000 in loans. In new jersey, thats up from an average of 27,000 in 2011 and 23,000 and change in 2010. This is unacceptable, mounting debt thats undermining not only the success of our individual young people in our country but its undermining the longterm competitiveness that our nation has in a global knowledgebased economy. And this is one reason why its important we work to make the process of obtaining Financial Aid simpler and more straightforward. You saw the redicklessness which senator ridiculousness which senator bennet held up in the length of the form, the explanation document. Well this has to change. Something i recognized when i was mayor of the city of newark, that literally bebrought classes we called them i think Financial Aid university, where we brought experts in just to try to help students navigate all of that. We spent so much resources just knowing that for our kids from newark to be competitive we had to help them navigate this labyrinth of challenging questions and documents that it does take perhaps a College Degree or more to figure out. When i first came to the United States senate about 13 months ago one of the first pieces of legislation that i offered having had that experience was a way of simplifying these forms. There is an urgency here because the College Board estimates 2. 3 Million Students do not fill out the free application for Financial Aid form because the form is a gateway to Financial Aid having 2. 3 Million People being deterred from actually filling it out is a harm to our nation not just to those individual students. Many students who qualify for federal aid skip the form because they find it, as we obviously saw, too complex. Because eligibility is currently based on income information from the year immediately preceding enrollment Financial Aid deadlines mean tax data is often not yet available. As a result students must determine how to fill out Financial Aid questions on the form on the fafsa form and make additional steps to later submit the tax documents. We know more can be done to make this process simpler. And accessible. Which is why i am pleased i was really rejoicing when senator alexander, senator bennet showed me there was a way we could work to even further than my legislation i introduced in the last congress to reduce it to two questions saving time saving energy, saving stress but even more importantly, empowering students who get their education to contribute to our economy so we can compete with other countries who seem to be doing a much better jobs job than us at keeping the cost of college low. This bill streamlines the Financial Aid system, simplifies the fasfsa form discourages overborg which is overborrowing which is a problem and gives students information to make better decisions for them. This bill is a good step. This bill is a great step. Im looking forward to working with the Higher Education community as well as students and families in new jersey on how we can be successful in simplifying this process increasing access to college and boosting not just enrollment but boosting economic output of our citizenry. Again, i want to thank senator alexander and senator bennet for their work and leadership. Im happy to be with them in this effort and look forward to continuing the conversation this year. The presiding officer the senator from tennessee. Mr. Alexander the senator from new jersey is known in his state