Consider Teachers Act of 2021

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (S. 848) to amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 in order to improve the service obligation verification process for TEACH Grant recipients, and for other purposes.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on S. 848, the Consider Teachers Act of 2021.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of S. 848, the Consider Teachers Act, introduced by Senators Braun and Sinema in the Senate, and led by Delegate Holmes Norton and Representative Spartz in the House.

High quality teachers are the backbone of our Nation's education system. Yet, since even before the COVID-19 pandemic, communities across the country, particularly low-income communities, have faced a growing shortage of educators.

To address this shortage, the Teacher Education Assistance for College and Higher Education grant program, or the TEACH grant program, offers upfront grant aid to incentivize individuals to pursue teaching and serve in low-income communities.

Since 2007 these grants have helped people across the country become high-quality teachers in the communities where they are needed most. However, administrative issues with the program have inadvertently converted thousands of these grants into loans which must be paid back with interest. According to an investigative report in 2016, upwards of 63 percent of TEACH grants had been converted to loans, leaving badly needed teachers with burdensome debt.

The bipartisan bill we are considering today addresses these issues in two key ways: First, it implements a reconsideration process to ensure TEACH grant recipients do not see their grants converted into loans by mistake; and, second, the bill creates flexibility so that teachers can still fulfill the grant's requirements in light of school closures and disruptions caused by the pandemic.

Simply put, the Consider Teachers Act is a bipartisan legislative fix which will ensure TEACH grants can continue to strengthen and expand our Nation's teacher workforce.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support the bill, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as she may consume to the gentlewoman from the District of Columbia (Ms. Norton).

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I want to reiterate again my thanks to Representative Spartz and Delegate Norton for working across the aisle on this bipartisan priority in the House.

As my colleagues have reiterated, the TEACH grant program is supposed to

help prepare high quality and diverse educators for our Nation's underserved students. Today it is critical that the TEACH grant program actually works as intended as we recover from a global health emergency that cost education jobs, exacerbated achievement gaps, and worsened the teacher shortage in many States and districts. That is why we must ensure that Federal initiatives to strengthen the teacher workforce make it easier, not harder, for individuals to enter the teaching profession.

The Consider Teaching Act would help achieve this goal by ensuring that TEACH grants do not have the unintended effect of leaving educators with burdensome loans. This simple yet urgent step will allow prospective teachers across the country to continue accessing the resources they need to pursue careers in teaching.

Importantly, this bill is an opportunity to demonstrate that regardless of party affiliation, each of us in Congress shares a commitment to improving the quality of education by investing in well- prepared teachers.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues, again, to support the bill and vote for the Consider Teachers Act.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I thank my good friend for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of S. 848, the Consider Teachers Act of 2021. I introduced the companion bill with Congresswoman Victoria Spartz. I would like to thank Senators Mike Braun and Kyrsten Sinema also for their leadership on this bill, and my good friend, Chairman Bobby Scott, for bringing this bill to the floor today.

This bill would improve the service obligation verification process for the Teacher Education Assistance for College and Higher Education Grant Program, or TEACH grant program, as it is called. The TEACH grant program was created to attract the best and brightest to the teaching profession in underserved communities. The TEACH grant program provides up to $4,000 a year in grants to students who agree to serve for at least 4 years as full-time teachers in a high-need field in a public or private elementary or secondary school that serves low-income families. The obligation to teach 4 years must be completed within an 8-year period. Those who do not fulfill their service requirement have their grants converted into Federal direct unsubsidized Stafford loans which must be paid back with interest. These loans cannot revert to grants.

According to the Office of Management and Budget, 66 percent of the grants are converted into loans. Though 21,000 grant recipients have completed the program without conversion, 94,000 recipients have had their grants converted to loans. Those conversions are often triggered by small paperwork issues, such as submitting the annual form 1 day late or missing a date or signature.

In 2018, the U.S. Department of Education released a reconsideration process for recipients who had their grants converted into loans but had either fulfilled, or could still fulfill, their service obligations. The department also turned back the clock to allow teachers who had left the TEACH grant program once their grants were converted to loans to give them more time to complete their service obligations. These changes allowed the department to lift the debt of 2,300 recipients.

I am pleased that the department made additional improvements to the program on July 1, 2021, including opening the reconsideration process to all TEACH grant program recipients. This bill would codify some of these changes, creating a safeguard from changes in department leadership.

This bill would also outline yearly deadlines and notification requirements to rectify some of the TEACH grant program's previous administrative mishaps. Furthermore, with the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, many recipients have had trouble finding qualifying work. This bill would create a grace period for those individuals by extending the service obligation fulfillment period by 3 years for anyone who was fulfilling their obligations when the coronavirus pandemic began.

This past year has given us all a hard lesson in the invaluable service that teachers and educators provide to our society. As many young students have turned to homeschooling and remote learning, we have all come to appreciate the hard work and incredible talent of our teachers who foster the mental, physical, and emotional growth of our children every day. This bill ensures that that pipeline of talent for the teaching profession remains strong and that we do not unduly burden TEACH grant program recipients who have dedicated themselves to serving our most vulnerable communities.

I understand what that means because my own mother, Vela Holmes, was a teacher in the D.C. Public Schools.

Mr. Speaker, I strongly urge my colleagues to support this bipartisan bill.

Mr. President, I wish to submit to the Senate a budget scorekeeping report. The report, which covers fiscal year 2022, was prepared by my staff on the Budget Committee and the Congressional Budget Office pursuant to section 308(b) and in aid of section 311 of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974, as amended. This information allows the Senate Budget Committee to determine if budgetary points of order lie against pending legislation.

The report shows the effect on spending and revenues of congressional action through September 15, 2022, as compared to the levels the Senate agreed to in the budget resolution for fiscal year 2022, S. Con. Res. 14. Since my last scorekeeping report on April 28, seven laws with significant budgetary effects have been signed by the President, and I have revised the levels in the budget resolution two times for legislation.

The Democratic staff of the Budget Committee prepared tables 1 and 2. Table 1 compares the mandatory spending of each authorizing committee against the enforceable allocations under section 302 of the Congressional Budget Act. It shows 10 of the 16 authorizing committees are in compliance with their allocations, either because no legislation with significant budgetary costs was enacted or the legislation qualified under the budget resolution for an allocation adjustment. Most of the spending above allowable levels is attributed to either the CHIPS Act of 2022 or the Honoring our PACT Act of 2022.

Table 2 shows the Senate pay-as-you-go--PAYGO--scorecard tallying enacted legislation with significant effects on mandatory spending and revenues. The scorecard shows a savings of $4.7 billion in 2022, a deficit of $174 billion over the 2022-2026 period, and a deficit of $528 billion over the 2022-2031 period. When compared to the allowable amounts on the PAYGO scorecard last adjusted on September 12, there is a deficit of $1.3 billion on the scorecard for 2022, $185 billion over the 2022-2026 period, and $667 billion over the 2022-2031 period.

In addition to these tables, I am submitting a letter from the Congressional Budget Office with further detail. For fiscal year 2022, current budgetary levels are within allowed amounts. Current law budget authority is $2.6 billion below the maximum allowed in the revised budget resolution, outlays are $17 billion below the allowed maximum, and revenues are $68 million above the allowed minimum. The tables also show that there has been no net change for Social Security.

I ask unanimous consent that the letter and accompanying tables from CBO be printed in the Congressional Record.

Mr. President, I wish to submit to the Senate a budget scorekeeping report. The report, which covers fiscal year 2022, was prepared by the Congressional Budget Office pursuant to section 308(b) and in aid of section 311 of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974, as amended. This information allows the Senate Budget Committee to determine if budgetary

points of order lie against pending legislation.

The report shows the effect on spending and revenues of congressional action through April 25, 2022, as compared to the levels the Senate agreed to in the budget resolution for fiscal year 2022, S. Con. Res 14. I have revised the levels in the budget resolution five times for legislation, as authorized by the resolution. The report shows the effects of the 11 laws signed by the President since the passage of the budget resolution with significant effects on budget authority, outlays, or revenues.

Tables 1 and 2 show that for fiscal year 2022, current law budget authority is $27 billion below the maximum allowed in the revised budget resolution, outlays are $18 billion below the allowed maximum, and revenues are $0.1 billion above the allowed minimum. They also show there has been no net change for Social Security.

The third table shows the Senate pay-as-you-go scorecard tallying enacted legislation with significant effects on mandatory spending and revenues. The scorecard shows a savings of $7.8 billion in 2022, $74.8 billion over the 2022-2026 period, and $139.9 billion over the 2022- 2031 period. When compared to the allowable amounts on the PAYGO scorecard last adjusted on March 2, there is a deficit of $668 million on the scorecard for 2022, a deficit of $687 million over the 2022-2026 period, and a surplus of $1.09 billion over the 2022-2031 period.

I ask unanimous consent that the letter and accompanying tables from CBO be printed in the Record.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the Consider Teachers Act. When created, the TEACH grant program was to support students interested in becoming teachers. Unfortunately, the grant program has run into administrative challenges brought on by clerical and paperwork issues. Because of these issues, approximately two-thirds of all TEACH grants are converting into Federal student loans.

To address these inadvertent errors, the Consider Teachers Act reforms the program to ensure that teachers are not indebted due to simple mistakes. First, the legislation gives grant recipients the ability to reverse a conversion and eases the timeline for when the grant recipients must certify their employment with the Department of Education.

Second, the bill also extends the time grant recipients have to fulfill their service obligation in response to the challenges posed by the pandemic. The pandemic upended all of our lives, and teachers who lost their job shouldn't be unfairly punished for circumstances outside of their control.

Mr. Speaker, with the TEACH grant program, the Federal Government made a commitment to future teachers, and the Consider Teachers Act fulfills the original promise of the program. I urge all Members to support this bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.

In closing, Mr. Speaker, the TEACH grant program fails too many of our teachers, and it needs to be fixed. It is important that our Federal Government honors its promises. The Consider Teachers Act creates flexibility and streamlines processes.

Mr. Speaker, I urge all Members to vote in favor of this bill. Strong teachers are essential for high-quality learning.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.