CONGRESSIONAL RESOLUTION NO.

09-10-08

Sponsor(s): Scott Williamson (Governmental Relations)

Co-sponsor(s):
Filed on Oct. 14, 2009. Considered on 10/20/09 with a final disposition of Passed 40-1.

A RESOLUTION IN SUPPORT OF THE STUDENT AID AND FISCAL

RESPONSIBILITY ACT IN THE 111TH U.S. CONGRESS

1 WHEREAS, Rapidly rising costs in higher education are leaving millions of Americans unable
2 to afford a college degree or weighed down by thousands of dollars in debt from student loans;
3 and,
4
5 WHEREAS, Sixty percent of American university students graduate with debt from student
6 loans, and the average American student graduating with debt owes $22,700; and,
7
8 WHEREAS, Debt from student loans creates significant burdens for students after they leave
9 school, reducing their ability to invest in their future; and,
10
11 WHEREAS, Costs in higher education are the primary factor barring millions of qualified
12 American students from attending college every single year; and,
13
14 WHEREAS, The nation’s primary federal grant aid, the Pell Grant, has been underfunded and
15 stagnant for years, and the Federal Family Education Loan (FFEDL) program, which subsidizes
16 banks to provide student loans, is inefficient and undependable; and,
17
18 WHEREAS, Improving these federal financial aid programs would help to alleviate the
19 problems of college affordability and high levels of student debt; and,
20
21 WHEREAS, The Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act creates those improvements in
22 federal financial aid and addresses the problems of college affordability and student debt in the
23 following manners:
24
25 a) Invests forty billion dollars in the Pell Grant program to increase the maximum annual
26 scholarship to five-thousand five-hundred and fifty dollars in 2010.
27 b) Mandates continued increases over time by tying Pell Grant funding to the Consumer
28 Price Index.
29 c) Converts the FFEDL program into the successful Direct Loan program, isolating loans
30 from the effects of market swings.
31 d) Strengthens the Perkins Loan program.
32 e) Simplifies the FAFSA form to make the application process for financial aid easier;
33
34 THEREFORE LET IT BE RESOLVED, That the Indiana University Student Association
35 Congress fully supports the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act and urges the United
36 States Senate to act on and pass the bill with all urgency.