Subject: VIDEO: Las Vegas TV Coverage of Catherine Cortez Masto College Affordability Roundtable
From: Cortez Masto Press <[email-masked]>
To: undisclosed-recipients:;
Date: Wed, 27 Apr 2016 09:20:41 -0700

​

For Immediate Release

April 27, 2016

Contact: [email-masked] <[email-masked]>*

*VIDEO <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AiLNzZ-hOMc&feature=youtu.be>: Las
Vegas TV Coverage of Catherine Cortez Masto College Affordability
Roundtable*

*While Cortez Masto will work with both Parties to solve problems like
making college more affordable, Sharron Angle and Congressman Heck would
vote with their Party bosses to make college more expensive*

*View the coverage here
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AiLNzZ-hOMc&feature=youtu.be>*

Las Vegas, NV – Yesterday, former Nevada Attorney General and U.S. Senate
candidate Catherine Cortez Masto joined students from colleges in Southern
Nevada for a roundtable on college affordability in Las Vegas. The
roundtable followed the launch of the “Students for Cortez Masto” Steering
Committee
<http://catherinecortezmasto.com/post/142809887479/at-the-university-of-nevada-reno-catherine>
at
her alma mater, the University of Nevada, Reno, earlier this month.

“As Nevada’s next Senator, Catherine Cortez Masto will work with both
Parties to solve problems like making college more affordable,” said Zach
Hudson, spokesperson for Catherine Cortez Masto for Senate. “In contrast,
one of her opponents, Congressman Heck, voted with his Party’s bosses in
Washington to cut Pell Grants for 35,000 Nevada students and voted to raise
interest rates on student loans. The choice for Nevada students and
graduates is clear: in the Senate Catherine Cortez Masto will work across
the aisle to make college more affordable, Sharron Angle or Congressman
Heck would vote with their Party’s leaders to make it more expensive.”

<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AiLNzZ-hOMc&feature=youtu.be>

View coverage of yesterday’s roundtable here.
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AiLNzZ-hOMc&feature=youtu.be>

*Background:*

*Heck Voted For House Republican Budget That Would Cut Spending By $5.5
Trillion Over 10 Years. *In March 2015, Heck voted for: “Adoption of the
concurrent resolution that would provide for $2.937 trillion in new budget
authority in fiscal 2016, not including off-budget accounts. It would
assume $5.5 trillion in spending reductions over the next 10 years,
including by assuming repeal of the 2010 healthcare law. It also would
propose reducing spending on Medicare and Medicaid and changing programs
such as food stamps. It would call for restructuring Medicare into a
‘premium support’ system beginning in 2024, call for a deficit-neutral
overhaul of the tax code that lowers rates and assume $147 billion in
additional savings through ‘dynamic scoring,’ and would include
instructions to committees to trigger the budget reconciliation process to
cut mandatory spending. The resolution would call for fiscal 2016 base
discretionary spending that adheres to the sequester-reduced defense and
non-defense caps set by the Budget Control Act, and for future years it
would assume a 10-year increase in defense caps of $387 billion while
calling for cutting non-defense caps by $759 billion. As amended, for
fiscal 2016 it would call for allowing $96 billion in uncapped war-related
funding to provide additional defense funding beyond sequester-reduced
caps, without requiring offsets.” The bill was adopted by a vote of
228-199. [CQ, 3/25/15 <http://www.cq.com/vote/2015/h/142>; H. Con. Res. 27,
Vote 142,3/25/15 <http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2015/roll142.xml>]

· *35,000 Nevadans Received Pell Grants To Help Pay For College. *[White
House Report, Republican Budget Resolutions: Same Failed Top-Down
Economics, 3/18/15
<https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/docs/budget_resolution_and_sequestration_impacts.pdf>
]

· *Republican Budget Eliminates Mandatory Funding For Pell Grants And
Freezes Grants At Their Current Level Instead Of Keeping Pace With
Inflation. *“The Republican budgets eliminate mandatory funding for Pell
Grants, and the House budget specifies that it would freeze the maximum
grant at its current level, instead of allowing it to increase to keep pace
with inflation. Over time, this would reduce financial aid for almost all
of the more than 8 million students who rely on Pell Grants to afford
college.” [White House Report, Republican Budget Resolutions: Same Failed
Top-Down Economics, 3/18/15
<https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/docs/budget_resolution_and_sequestration_impacts.pdf>
]

· *House Republican Budget Elimination Of Mandatory Funding For Pell Grants
Would Likely Force Further Cuts To Eligibility And Benefits. *In October
2015, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities CBPP Report on House
Republican budget stated: “The plan freezes the maximum Pell Grant for ten
years, even as tuition and room and board costs will continue to rise.  It
also eliminates Pell Grant funding on the mandatory side of the budget
(Pell Grants receive both mandatory and discretionary funding, as explained
below), likely forcing further cuts in eligibility and benefits.  In
addition, it would make student loans more expensive and cut other
education and training programs (see box).” [Center on Budget and Policy
Priorities, “House Budget Committee Plan Cuts Pell Grants Deeply, Reducing
Access to Higher Education,”10/21/15
<http://www.cbpp.org/sites/default/files/atoms/files/3-24-15bud.pdf>]

· *CBO: Eliminating Mandatory Funding For Pell Grants Would Increase Costs
For Students – Students Who Borrowed $23,000 Would “Leave School With
Additional Debt Of About $3,800 Because Of The Accrued Interest Costs.” *In
November 2014, the Congressional Budget Office Estimated impact of
eliminating mandatory spending on student loans: “Under either alternative,
borrowers who lost access to subsidized loans would pay interest on
unsubsidized loans from the date of loan disbursement, which would raise
their costs. If a student who would have borrowed $23,000 (the lifetime
limit) through subsidized loans over five years beginning with the
2014–2015 academic year instead borrowed the same amount through
unsubsidized loans, that student would leave school with additional debt of
about $3,800 because of the accrued interest costs. Over a typical 10-year
repayment period, the student’s monthly payment would be $43 higher than if
he or she had borrowed that same amount through subsidized loans.”
[Congressional Budget Office, Reduce or Eliminate Subsidized Loans for
Undergraduate Students, 11/13/13
<https://www.cbo.gov/budget-options/2013/44741>]

*Heck Voted For GOP Student Loan Bill That Would Raise Student Loan
Interest Rates When Treasury Rates Rise. *In May 2013, Heck voted for:
“Under the GOP proposal, student loans would be reset every year, pegged to
10-year Treasury notes with added percentage points. For instance, students
who receive subsidized or unsubsidized Stafford student loans would pay the
Treasury rate, plus 2.5 percentage points starting for loans issued
after July 1. Current subsidized Stafford loans are offered at a fixed 3.4
percent rate and unsubsidized Stafford loans are offered at 6.8 percent.
The interest rate on loans to parents and graduate students is 7.9 percent.
Using Congressional Budget Office projections, the GOP plan would translate
to a 5 percent interest rate on all Stafford loans in 2014, but the rate
would climb to 7.7 percent for loans in 2023. ‘We're ripping off kids,’
said Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt. Stafford loan rates would be capped at 8.5
percent, while loans for parents and graduate students would have a 10.5
percent ceiling under the GOP plan.” [Associated Press, 5/24/13
<https://www.memphisdailynews.com/news/2013/may/24/house-backs-variable-rate-student-loans/print>;
H.R. 1911, Vote 183, 5/23/13 <http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2013/roll183.xml>]

· *Associated Press: “The GOP Plan Would Cost Students And Families
Heavily.” *“In real dollars, the GOP plan would cost students and families
heavily, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service. The
office used the CBO projections for Treasury notes' interest rates each
year.” [Associated Press, 5/22/13
<http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/obama-threatens-veto-house-student-loan-plan>
]

· *Students With Subsidized Stafford Loans Would Pay Almost $5,000 More
Over 10 Years In Real Dollars.* “In real dollars, the GOP plan would cost
students and families heavily, according to the nonpartisan Congressional
Research Service. The office used the CBO projections for Treasury notes'
interest rates each year. Students who max out their subsidized Stafford
loans over four years would pay $8,331 in interest payments under the
Republican bill, and $3,450 if rates were kept at 3.4 percent. If rates
were allowed to double in July, that amount would be $7,284 over the
typical 10-year window to repay the maximum $19,000.” [Associated Press,
5/22/13
<http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/obama-threatens-veto-house-student-loan-plan>
]

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