McALLEN
— The Rio Grande Valley’s congressional delegation promises swift work
in the first 100 hours of Congress’ 110th session set to convene
Thursday.
In
the midst of predicted action on stem cell research, drug prices for
Medicare recipients and the minimum wage, congressmen and women will
also tackle education issues early on and throughout the session.
"It
will be a great opportunity to really get the job done, get to work and
of course get some results," said U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo,
whose district includes Starr and western Hidalgo counties. "That’s
what the bottom line is."
Included
in the 100-hour goals is to trim interest rates on student school loans
from 6.8 percent to 3.4 percent and add more money to the Pell Grant,
Cuellar said. The grant is set to pay out $4,050 to qualified college
students working on undergraduate or graduate degrees through June
2008, according to the U.S. Department of Education.
U.S.
Rep. Rubén Hinojosa, D-Mercedes, said cutting the interest rate would
provide some relief for about 5 million students using federal money to
go to college.
The
Texas Public Interest Research Group in Austin is lobbying people to
sign the Federation of State Public Interest Research Group’s petition
so it send it to Congress asking for its support in cutting loan rates.
As of Friday morning about 3,400 people nationwide had signed the
petition, according to Texas PIRG information.
Congress
is also expected to pass within the 100 hours a continuing resolution
to keep the U.S. Department of Education funded through next October.
This is being done because the 109th Congress failed to pass a budget
for eight departments, including education. Congress was able to pass
budgets for the federal homeland security and defense departments.
"It’s
not unusual in what the Republican Congress did the last three or four
years," said Cathy Travis, spokeswoman for U.S. Rep. Solomon Ortiz,
D-Corpus Christi. "The central thing is this: it’s difficult to stand
for elections when you make tough decisions on budget spending matters."
President Bush will present his proposed fiscal year 2008 budget shortly after Congress opens the new session.
Bush’s
fiscal year 2007 budget caused controversy earlier this year when he
called for eliminating programs that help students consider college as
an option after high school. Some of those targeted included Gaining
Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs (GEAR UP),
Even Start and Upward Bound.
Cuellar
said the White House told legislators the programs duplicated services
that could be done in more cost-effective ways. The programs were
eventually saved in congressional committee talks.
"These
programs are just very useful, especially for South Texas and the
border area," Cuellar said. "We were successful. I don’t know if the
president will try that again."
Hinojosa
said White House staff continues to ask Congress to think about the
ongoing war on terrorism when questions are asked on budget matters.
"We’ve
been spending $8 billion dollars a month on the war in Iraq and
Afghanistan and that’s how they shut you up," he said. "We’ve just not
accepted that.
"They
(education cuts) can be proposed, but the Congress is responsible for
the final budget and we’ve been successful in restoring those monies
each and every year they’ve been cut by this administration."
