Durbin: GOP Filibusters Student Loans

…from Senator Durbin late last week:

We voted on our college affordability bill yesterday. Republicans stood in the way.

What on God’s Green Earth are these Senate Republicans thinking? That’s what was going through my mind as I walked off the Senate floor, Steve, after we voted on the Bank on Students Emergency Loan Refinancing Act, Elizabeth Warren’s student loan refinancing legislation. Despite having a majority of senators (58-38) on our side, the Republicans blocked the bill with another filibuster. They would not even let us start the debate on this critical issue. I know from traveling Illinois from one end to the other that students and their families are struggling with college loan debt. The student victims of these awful for-profit colleges are living in a special Hell but even the students at reputable schools face a mountain of debt. The bill that Elizabeth Warren and I introduced would simply give many of these students a chance to refinance at a lower interest rate. They could face lower monthly payments; pay off their debts sooner and get on with their lives. Only three Republican senators (Collins, Corker and Murkowski) voted with us. We needed two more. Do elections count? For the 1.7 million people in Illinois paying off student debt and more than 40 million nationwide, this issue and this vote define the next election. I am not going to quit this fight. Thank you for standing by my side. Yours, Dick Durbin U.S. Senator CONTRIBUTE to Senator Durbin LIKE Senator Durbin on Facebook FOLLOW Senator Durbin on Twitter