Subject: Re: Policy Heads Up: Warren on Debt-Free College & Bernie on Paid Leave
From: Brian Fallon <[email-masked]>
To: "Ann O'Leary" <[email-masked]>
Cc: John Podesta <[email-masked]>, Amanda Renteria <[email-masked]>, Robby Mook <[email-masked]>, Jennifer Palmieri <[email-masked]>, Kristina Schake <[email-masked]>, Marlon Marshall <[email-masked]>, Dan Schwerin <[email-masked]>, Jake Sullivan <[email-masked]>, Maya Harris <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 11 Jun 2015 07:38:31 -0400

And now  I will call Politico about their headline

Clinton student loan reform plan has Warren stamp

On a litmus test issue for liberals, Hillary Clinton’s campaign has sought
out policy experts with ties to the Massachusetts senator.

By ANNIE KARNI

Updated 6/11/15 7:14 AM EDT

In weekly calls and in meetings over the past few months, Hillary Clinton’s
policy team has been soliciting input from policy experts with ties to Sen.
Elizabeth Warren, with the goal of making student loan reform the core of
Clinton’s economic agenda.

The effort to make college more accessible — a litmus test for liberals and
key to attracting grass-roots support on the left — comes as the Clinton
campaign finds itself under increasing pressure to accommodate progressive
demands. Yet it also could provide Clinton with a signature domestic policy
issue, similar to health care for Barack Obama in 2008. With a student debt
crisis climbing upward of $1.2 trillion, Clinton’s camp views the issue as
one where the former secretary of state could drive the conversation and
create a mandate for reform.

In one of the clearest signs of the importance the policy team — headed by
senior adviser Ann O’Leary — is placing on the issue, student loan reform
is expected to be one of the earliest policy rollouts after Clinton’s
campaign kickoff Saturday. The campaign is expected to unveil its student
loan plans in detail in mid-July, multiple sources said.

To the great relief of restive progressives, Clinton’s campaign has sought
out policy experts with strong ties to Warren, who has crusaded on the
issues of making college more affordable and refinancing student loans so
that students get the same interest rates on federal loans as banks do on
theirs.

Heather McGhee, president of the liberal think tank Demos, has discussed
the issue directly with Hillary Clinton, sources said. McGhee’s think tank
is aligned with Warren, whose daughter, Amelia Warren Tyagi, serves as
chairwoman of the board of Demos.

The Clinton campaign has also sought advice from Rohit Chopra, the top
student loan official at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, who was
hired by Warren when she launched the agency. Chopra remains close with
Warren, who recently endorsed him as her top candidate to replace Ben
Lawsky as the next New York State superintendent of financial services,
after his name was floated in the news media.

Other experts who have also been involved in discussions with O’Leary and
her team, sources said, include Mark Huelsman, a senior policy analyst at
Demos; economist Gene Sperling; James Kvaal, who was Obama’s policy
director in the 2012 election; and longtime Clinton advisere Neera Tanden,
president of the Center for American Progress.

None of the policy details have been finalized, and it’s still unclear how
Clinton plans to pay for any of the proposals currently being discussed.

But on the table is a plan to support debt-free college — including in that
reducing the cost of attendance. That goes further than either of Clinton’s
Democratic opponents, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders or former Maryland Gov.
Martin O’Malley, have discussed when addressing the issue of debt-free
college. Sanders has used it to mean simply covering the cost of tuition,
and O’Malley has focused more on capping student loan payments.

It’s not clear yet exactly what form Clinton’s debt-free college proposal
will take — whether students will pay based on a percentage of their income
or carry some obligation based on their ability to pay.

But covering the cost of attendance is appealing to the progressive
policymakers advising Clinton. “The total cost of attendance is a more
expansive view of the actual cost of higher education,” said Huelsman. “We
and other groups have encouraged Clinton to include the cost of attendance
as the definition of debt-free college. That would be a big deal.”

Also under discussion is allowing students to refinance their loans, an
issue that Warren championed in a bill that was defeated last year by
Republican opposition. “It would help a lot of middle-class families with
student debt,” said Huelsman.

Outside experts are also pitching the campaign on a bill of rights for
student loan carriers and risk-sharing for colleges, which means a school
would be penalized if a student defaulted on loans. Both of those are
currently under discussion with campaign officials.

“It doesn’t hurt to have had a lot of people in the more progressive side
of the Democratic Party say we want this to be a key issue going into
2016,” Huelsman said. “It seems like they want to do something big on this.
I’m extremely encouraged.”

O’Leary has invited a group of experts to an hours-long briefing at the
Center for American Progress in Washington, D.C., on Thursday to discuss
these issues.

A campaign spokesman declined to comment about the meeting or the policies
under review.

But the Clinton campaign has made it clear that, even in its ramp-up phase,
the issue is at the forefront of their planned agenda. “What voters are
looking for in this election is someone who is going to be a champion for
everyday people,” campaign manager Robby Mook said in a CNBC interview in
May. “For young people, that’s debt-free college, that is finding that job
after you graduate.”

Clinton herself has addressed it in her early forays on the campaign trail.
“We have to deal with the indebtedness — to try to move toward making
college as debt-free as possible,” she said last month in Iowa.

Clinton’s most engaged moment so far during the roundtables she has
participated in was with Bryce Smith, a 23-year-old bowling-alley owner in
Iowa, who told her student loans were harming his ability to access credit
for his small business. “I’ve never heard anyone so persuasively link it to
the slowdown in business startups,” Clinton told him.

She has also praised Obama’s $60 billion community college plan, which
would provide students with two years of free community college. Her plan,
however, is expected to be more expansive and influence more institutions
than just community colleges.

Read more:
http://www.politico.com/story/2015/06/clinton-student-loan-reform-plan-has-warren-stamp-118865.html#ixzz3ckifVMKV

On Wednesday, June 10, 2015, Brian Fallon <[email-masked]>
wrote:

> Ann - Politico has learned of your meeting tomorrow with "CAP folks" and
> is using that, combined with Warren's announcement today, as the hook for a
> story on the "Clinton campaign at work on a debt-free college proposal."
> She intends to name Gene, Neera, James Kwaal, Rohit Chopra, and Mark
> Huelsman as people the campaign has consulted over the previous months. The
> story intends to say that among the things on the table in the discussion:
> (1) having the proposal contemplate "Cost of attendance," not just tuition;
> (2) a college student's "bill of rights"; and (3) a responsibility
> provision that would make colleges bear some of the liability for students
> who default on their obligations. The story intends to say that nothing has
> been finalized yet, but the goal is to unveil the proposal as soon as July.
> The story is planned for tomorrow morning. we don't have to do anything
> unless we want to play down any of the ideas being described as "on the
> table."
>
>
>
> On Wed, Jun 10, 2015 at 5:46 PM, Ann O'Leary <[email-masked]
> <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml',[email-masked]');>> wrote:
>
>> Here is what is happening:
>>
>> (1) Our higher ed proposal - Robby asked where we are.  Over the past
>> week, we've been working really closely a great group of higher ed experts
>> and smart policy-political folks including Gene and Neera.  Together, we
>> have decided that the Australia model doesn't go far enough because it
>> keeps us doubling down on the student debt model, rather than getting at
>> the heart of bending the cost curve and making college "as debt free as
>> possible."  In the next couple of days, we will be spending time meeting
>> with experts and advocates to test out our "College Responsibility Compact"
>> that would set up a compact between states-colleges-parents-colleges, each
>> doing their part to work toward debt free tuition for students who attend
>> public colleges and universities and would give bonuses to those colleges
>> that go further and provide debt free cost of attendance for low-income
>> students.  I'm attaching our draft proposal on this piece.  We'll have a
>> full memo for all of you and HRC after we get through the next several days
>> of meetings.  My plan is that we can use the meeting to listen and test a
>> few ideas without telling folks too much.
>>
>> (2) Paid Leave - Just learned that Bernie's proposal is for 2 weeks of
>> paid vacation - an employer mandate  - that he envisions happening on top
>> of "paid sick days and maternity leave." His presser is tomorrow at 11 am
>> so we should learn more.  But I'm pretty fascinated that both Bernie and
>> O'Malley haven't fully embraced "paid family and medical leave" - and
>> instead looking at paid sick days/paid vacation and parental leave.  For
>> us, we are still looking at the full paid family and medical leave, as well
>> as the possibility of paid family leave (for new parents and caring for
>> sick relatives) along with generous paid sick days proposal.
>>
>> More on all of this soon!
>>
>> On Wed, Jun 10, 2015 at 12:06 PM, John Podesta <[email-masked]
>> <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml',[email-masked]');>> wrote:
>>
>>> Heather B talked to Bernie's staffer who is drafting the bill. Heather
>>> told me the staffer didn't know much about paid leave so I think they are
>>> trying to get this in before Saturday's announcement.
>>>
>>>
>>> On Wednesday, June 10, 2015, Amanda Renteria <
>>> [email-masked]
>>> <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml',[email-masked]');>> wrote:
>>>
>>>> This came up w progressives too.  Will do a short summary of the issues
>>>> folks raised, etc. Echoing John this morning, very surprised that we didn't
>>>> get hit on TPA.  Very surprised.
>>>>
>>>> Sent from my iPhone
>>>>
>>>> On Jun 10, 2015, at 8:44 AM, Robby Mook <[email-masked]>
>>>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> What's our latest thinking on college?  Are we thinking Australia,
>>>> grants, or financing or something else?
>>>>
>>>> On Wed, Jun 10, 2015 at 12:57 AM, Ann O'Leary <
>>>> [email-masked]> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Hi all -
>>>>>
>>>>> I've learned that Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders are going to
>>>>> give major speeches this week on two of our priorities.
>>>>>
>>>>> DEBT-FREE COLLEGE - Tomorrow (Wed.), Elizabeth Warren is giving a
>>>>> major address at The Shanker Institute entitled, "The Affordability Crisis:
>>>>> Rescuing the Dream of College for the Working Class and the Poor." It is a
>>>>> pretty comprehensive speech that touches on many of the issues and points
>>>>> that we have been developing (with a harder hitting bent on the Dept of
>>>>> Ed's lack of enforcement of bad actors in the for-profit sector).
>>>>> Interestingly, however, while she says that every student should have a
>>>>> "debt free option" to attend college, her policy proposals to get there are
>>>>> first directed at the states: (1) states should invest more in higher ed;
>>>>> and (2) states should start refinancing student loans.  She does say the
>>>>> federal government has a role to partner with states and fix the Pell grant
>>>>> program, but she doesn't really lay out a comprehensive plan of how we are
>>>>> going to get to a "debt free option" for every student.
>>>>>
>>>>> I do, however, think that it will get quite a lot of attention and
>>>>> while we can still say our plan is coming later, the pressure will continue
>>>>> to mount.  I'm attaching her full speech as an FYI.  Also, as an FYI, I'm
>>>>> headed to DC to do meetings with higher ed groups on Thursday and Friday -
>>>>> and so this may generate some buzz.
>>>>>
>>>>> PAID LEAVE - Bernie's folks have been calling my friends in the paid
>>>>> leave world to let them know that he will be giving a major speech on paid
>>>>> leave and introducing legislation on paid leave on Thursday.  No one has
>>>>> leaked it to me yet, but I assume it will be at least as comprehensive as
>>>>> Gillibrand's FAMILY Act.  I'll let you know when I learn more.
>>>>>
>>>>> Let me know if you have questions - or if you hear more on these
>>>>> pieces.
>>>>>
>>>>> Thanks,
>>>>> Ann
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> --
>>>>> Ann O'Leary
>>>>> Senior Policy Advisor
>>>>> Hillary for America
>>>>> Cell: 510-717-5518
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Ann O'Leary
>> Senior Policy Advisor
>> Hillary for America
>> Cell: 510-717-5518
>>
>
>