To express the sense of the Senate that economic stimulus legislation enacted pursuant to the instructions contained in this concurrent resolution on the budget should include provisions to make higher education affordable.

SA 285. Mr. SCHUMER (for himself, Mr. Smith, and Mr. Biden) submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by him to the concurrent resolution S. Con. Res. 23, setting forth the congressional budget for the United States Governments for fiscal year 2004 and including the appropriate budgetary levels for fiscal year 2003 and for fiscal years 2005 through 2013; which was ordered to lie on the table; as follows:

On page 79, after line 22, add the following:

SEC. __. SENSE OF THE SENATE.

(a) Findings.--The Senate finds that--

(1) in our increasingly competitive global economy, the attainment of higher education is critical to the economic success of an individual, as evidenced by the fact that, in 1975, college graduates earned an average of 57 percent more than individuals who were only high school graduates, as compared to the fact that, in 2001, college graduates earned an average of 84 percent more than high school graduates;

(2) over the past 20 years, the average cost of college tuition has increased by over 250 percent and is increasing--

(A) at a faster rate than any consumer item, including health care; and

(B) at a rate that is more than twice as fast as the rate of inflation;

(3) despite increases in grant amounts contained in legislation recently enacted by Congress, the value of the maximum Pell Grant has declined 15 percent since 1975 in inflation-adjusted terms, forcing more students to rely on student loans to finance the cost of a higher education;

(4) from fiscal years 1990 to 2000, the demand for student loans rose by 41 percent and the average student loan amount increased by 48.2 percent; and

(5) according to the Department of Education, there is approximately $150,000,000,000 in outstanding student loan debt and students borrowed more during the decade beginning in 1990 than during all of the decades beginning in 1960, 1970, and 1980.

(b) Sense of the Senate.--It is the sense of the Senate that economic stimulus legislation enacted pursuant to the instructions contained in this concurrent resolution on the budget should include provisions to make higher education affordable, including--

(1) a provision to make permanent the above-the-line deduction for the higher education expenses of a taxpayer and members of the taxpayer's family and to increase such deduction to $8,000 for taxable year 2003 and $12,000 for taxable year 2004 and thereafter; and

(2) a credit against tax of up to $1,500 for each taxable year (indexed for inflation) for interest paid during such taxable year on loans incurred for higher education expenses--

(A) during the first 60 months such payments are required; and

(B) paid by individuals who are not dependents.