LEGISLATIVE RESOLUTION urging the New York State Congressional deleg-
ation to re-authorize the federal College Cost Reduction and Access Act

WHEREAS, It is the sense of this Legislative Body to urge the New York
State Congressional delegation to re-authorize the federal College Cost
Reduction and Access Act, which is set to expire July of 2012; and
WHEREAS, If the act expires, it would return interest rates on student
loans for the 2012-13 school year to the 2006 level of 6.8 percent; and
WHEREAS, Re-authorizing this legislation would cap student loan inter-
est rates at the current level of 3.4 percent; and
WHEREAS, There is growing concern regarding the looming interest-rate
hikes for federal student loans; this dramatic rate hike would be
catastrophic to a record number of college graduates who have had diffi-
culty finding a career in these tough economic times; and
WHEREAS, In 2010 college graduates nationwide carried an average of
$25,250 in student-loan debt; meanwhile, unemployment for recent college
graduates climbed from 8.7 percent in 2009 to 9.1 percent in 2010 - the
highest annual rate on record for 20- to 24-year-old college graduate;
and
WHEREAS, In New York State alone, 61 percent of college graduates have
student-loan debt, with the average student carrying over $26,000 in
debt; Americans now owe over $900 billion in student loans; and
WHEREAS, This private debt is now higher than the total amount owed on
credit-card debt in the United States; and
WHEREAS, This new "Generation Debt" will be paying essentially two
mortgages over the course of their lives: one for their home, and the
other for their education; and
WHEREAS, This Legislative Body calls upon the New York State Congres-
sional delegation to act immediately to cap student-loan interest at the
current rate of 3.4 percent, and further ask that they vote in favor of
legislation to cap total student-loan debt, as well as work on a compre-
hensive strategy to ease this massive debt burden that is drowning a new
generation of Americans and severely eroding our nation's quality of
life; now, therefore, be it
RESOLVED, That the New York State Congressional delegation be and
hereby is respectfully memorialized by this Legislative Body to re-au-
thorize the federal College Cost Reduction and Access Act; and be it
further
RESOLVED, That a copy of this Resolution, suitably engrossed, be tran-
smitted to each member of the Congressional delegation from the State of
New York.