Democrats urge Enzi, Thomas to ban gifts from student lenders

Contact:  Bill Luckett, Executive Director   307-473-1457 (office)   307-473-1459 (fax)  

From the Wyoming Democratic Party

For immediate release

May 10, 2007

Contact: Bill Luckett

Communications director

307-631-7638

Democrats urge Enzi, Thomas to ban gifts from student lenders

CASPER - The Wyoming Democratic Party today called on Senators Mike Enzi and Craig Thomas to support a bill the House passed Wednesday to ban student loan companies from offering gifts and incentives to universities to increase their business.

The bill, H R 890, passed the House with overwhelming bipartisan support on a 414-3 vote. [Vote 313, 5/9/07]

"This bill will help ensure fair play by student loan companies and protect our young people as they acquire the resources they need to attend college," said Paul Weaver, chairman of the Young Democrats of Wyoming. "I urge Senators Enzi and Thomas to support this bill."

Millin said this legislation is even more important in light of comments made Thursday by Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings, who told Congress the nation's student financial aid system is "broken," "Byzantine," "redundant," and "crying out for reform." [Boston Globe online, May 10, 2007, http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2007/05/10/student_aid_system_broken___us_education_secretary/]

Weaver said the integrity of the student loan system is critical for young people across Wyoming and the nation to be able to afford to go to college.

"If Congress doesn't fix this broken student loan system, the people who are going to suffer are low- and middle-income students, the ones who need financial aid the most," he said. "This isn't a partisan issue. It's about students of all stripes."

Weaver said he hopes Senator Enzi in particular will not let his personal ties to the student loan industry influence his vote on the legislation. A CNN article from November describes the "cozy relationship" between Enzi and student lenders:

"Mike Enzi, the Wyoming Republican who (was at the time) the chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, has a political-action committee called Making Business Excel. Top contributors are the employees of Sallie Mae, who gave $20,000; of Corinthian Colleges, who gave $15,348; and of Nelnet, who gave $10,000.

"According to PoliticalMoneyLine, the PAC has paid $121,129 since 2005 to Enzi Strategies, a political consulting firm owned by Danielle Enzi, who is Mike Enzi's daughter-in-law." [http://money.cnn.com/2006/11/13/magazines/fortune/democrats_student_loans.fortune/index.htm]

Other expenses the Making Business Excel PAC has covered include chartered jets and thousand-dollar lunches, according to the Website Student Loan Justice.Org. [http://www.studentloanjustice.org/enzi.htm]

While his PAC was receiving thousands of dollars from the student loan industry, Senator Enzi supported legislation to increase the industry's profits at the expense of college students, such as the budget-reduction package in late 2005, which raised the student loan interest rates. [Vote 363, 12/21/2005]

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