Providing for Congressional Disapproval of Rule Submitted By Department of Education Relating to ``Borrower Defense Institutional Accountability''--veto Message From the President of the United States

Floor Speech

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Mrs. LEE of Nevada. Mr. Speaker, I rise to urge my colleagues to join me in overriding the Presidential veto of H.J. Res. 76.

Last night, we took a historic vote for racial justice, the Justice in Policing Act. Time and again, Congress takes votes, votes like this one that will soon be forgotten in the media, but these are the votes that quietly perpetuate the systemic inequality and racism in our country. That is what this vote today is about.

Communities of color, minority and low-income students, and veterans are preyed upon by predatory for-profit schools. They are manipulated. They are lied to and they are defrauded.

Because we, the Federal Government, did not do enough to prevent that fraud, we established the borrower defense rule as part of the Higher Education Act as a way to give these students a path to justice and relief. But the Department of Education not only rewrote that rule to make justice for our students virtually impossible, it is also failing to hold these predatory schools accountable for their actions.

Time and time again, we tell young students in this country education is the answer, and they believe us. But that system failed them. The system failed my constituent, Kendrick Harrison, a brave Iraq war veteran, a father, and a Black American.

Kendrick and his family were left homeless after his for-profit school blew through his GI benefits and convinced him to take out $16,000 in debt right before shutting their doors. He is fighting to this day and working as hard as anyone to get his life back on track.

I promise this story is not an exception. There are over 350,000 students just in recent years who were lied to, manipulated, and defrauded by predatory schools.

So I ask my colleagues: Are you going to stand with these students? Are you going to stand with the system that perpetuates inequality and holds down brave Americans like Kendrick? Are you going to let these for-profit schools wreak havoc on the lives of these students and take advantage of American taxpayers?

Because it is us, American taxpayers, who foot the bill for these bad actor schools because the Department of Education refuses to hold them accountable.

I am ready to take a stand against this broken policy, and I need you to stand with me. Take a stand for the very communities who have been rising up in this country.

These protests over the last several weeks are about police brutality, but they are about so much more. They are about decisions that we make in this body that perpetuate inequality and continue to stack the deck against Black Americans, student veterans, students in poverty, and working people who are just trying to better themselves.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to vote to override the President's veto. It is time to take a stand.

Ms. FOXX of North Carolina.

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