Rep. Ben Cline statement on opposition to College Affordability Act

Congressman Ben Cline (VA-06) released the following statement on the House Committee on Education and Labor’s passing of H.R. 4674 – the College Affordability Act (CAA).

“Virginia’s Sixth Congressional District is home to more colleges and universities than almost any area in the country,” Cline said. “To ensure that these institutions continue to thrive, we must address the skyrocketing cost to parents, the crushing debt to students, and the burdensome regulations to administrators. Unfortunately, this legislation passed out of the Education and Labor Committee does not accomplish these goals. At an estimated cost to the taxpayers of over $400 billion and 1,200 pages long, the misnamed College Affordability Act (CAA) does not produce solutions to make higher education work better for Americans, but instead, the Democrats have doubled down on provisions that only look to exacerbate the problems people face today in the education space.”

“With over $1.5 trillion in student loan debt, this is a crisis that negatively seeps into many facets of life which shows the dire need for dramatic reform in the higher education space. One of the amendments I offered would have provided necessary reforms by returning much of the administrative oversight power to the states, increased accountability and transparency, and pushed down the rising cost of tuition. Unfortunately, committee Democrats voted my amendment down, which I believe was the best alternative to their proposal and instead favored interventionist methods that will stifle innovation at institutions and stunt intellectual growth on campuses.”

“The cost of these provisions from the Democrat’s College Affordability Act burdens not only taxpayers, but also the parents and students who we serve.”