I guess it’s pretty clear from this blog that I love reading bills. I figure if someone went to all that trouble to write them and most Congressmen aren’t going to actually read them before they vote, I should at least take a look. Sometimes I’m pleasantly surprised when a piece of lucid, helpful legislation is drafted and I delight in telling my elected officials my opinion. Unfortunately, I haven’t been pleasantly surprised lately. No, today I was just angry. It seems some Senators are trying to sneak in their agenda while nobody’s watching. Well too bad because I’m watching!

S. 259 sounds pretty innocuous based on the title, the description, and the first few paragraphs. “To authorize the establishment of the Henry Kuualoha Giugni Kupuna Memorial Archives at the University of Hawaii.” I had no idea who Henry Kuualoha Giugni Kupuna was so I looked it up. He sounds like a pretty decent guy. He served in WWII. He was a policeman and firefighter. He worked for Senator Inouye in Hawaii and then in Washington for 30 years. He was the 30th Sergeant-at-Arms for the Senate. Ok, so Senator Inouye wants to do his old friend a solid and name an archive after him. I really don’t have a problem with that. Mr. Kupuna sounds like a good guy who really cared about his native Hawaii and I’d rather they name an archive after him than someone who just wrote a check.

That’s when I saw my first read flag.
“Mr. AKAKA (for himself, Mr. INOUYE, Mr. BYRD, Mr. REID, Mr. STEVENS, Mr. KENNEDY, Mr. COCHRAN, Mr. BIDEN, Mrs. CLINTON, Mr. DOMENICI, Mr. DORGAN, Mr. KERRY, Mr. LEAHY, Mr. LIEBERMAN, Mrs. LINCOLN, Mr. LOTT, Ms. MURKOWSKI, Mr. NELSON of Nebraska, Mr. REED, Mr. ROCKEFELLER, Mr. SPECTER, and Mrs. DOLE) introduced the following bill;”

Uh-oh. Kennedy, Clinton, Kerry and Rockefeller. I’ve seen those names before. That means the bill is going to need a little extra scrutiny.

The bill starts off okay. I don’t think it’s a federal issue; but, if they want to add cultural data from Native Alaskans and American Indians to the archive then I can see where the Feds might want to help.Then comes Section 1, paragraph b, sub-section 2:
“(2) to award scholarships to facilitate access to a college education for students who can not independently afford such education”
Scholarships? So are they saying federal money to fund University of Hawaii scholarships? Isn’t that a state school? I mean, no offense to the students of Hawaii, but why would they get scholarships? I could sense something else was wasn’t right.

“(10) to increase the economic and financial literacy of college students through the proliferation of proven best practices used at other institutions of higher education that result in positive behavioral change toward improved debt and credit management and economic decision making.”

Huh? Wait. You’ve lost me there. What does a cultural archive have to do with debt management? Then it hits me. “Best practices at other institutions” is code for “Colleges using the FDLP”. So now they’re claiming their support of the FDLP is to promote financial literacy among college students. So as a college student you should look to the government for examples of fiscal responsibility. Uh-huh.

To show an example of what fiscal responsibility looks like, Kennedy, Clinton, Kerry, and Rockefeller have signed the bill with there unique watermark – a blank check.

“(c) Authorization of Appropriations- There is authorized to be appropriated to carry out this section $5,000,000 for fiscal year 2007, $10,000,000 for fiscal year 2008, and such sums as may be necessary for each of the fiscal years 2009 through 2012.”

So this year they want $5 million, next year $10 million and then a blank check for 2009…2010….2011…2012… There’s no mention of measuring how effectively the money is being spent or of a cap on the amount of funds. Ok students, now you should follow this fine example and plan your financial aid appropriately.

We are opposed to the proposed student loan legislation and middle-class families should be too! The government is taking money out of YOUR POCKET.

It only takes one minute to make a difference: call your senators, send your senators an e-mail, download a letter to fax to your senators, become part of our petition and help your friends find out the truth about the proposed student loan legislation.