Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT), senior member of Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee released the following statement on tonight’s House-Senate conference approval of the Higher Education Act.  This legislation includes several priorities that Senator Dodd has been advocating, including:

• Significant increases in Pell grants from $4,310 to $6,000 in 2009 and up to $8,000 by 2014;

• Provisions of Senators Dodd’s and Shelby’s “Private Student Loan Transparency and Improvement Act,” which provides new protections for borrowers of private student loans;

• Provisions to control costs, and make it easier for students to pay their tuition.

“We all know that higher education opens the doors to a better quality of life and success for all Americans. This legislation is critically important to students and their families during this period of economic turmoil, because it not only will help stem the rising cost of tuition, it will also make it easier for students to pay their tuition bills.

“This bill provides all students with the tools that make it possible to afford higher education. I’m pleased that we were able to agree on significant increases in Pell grants for our students, new protections for borrowers of private student loans, and provisions to control rising costs of higher education.”

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