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Foxx: Don't Lead From Behind Friday, July 12, 2013 at 9:47AM Higher Education Subcommittee Chairwoman Virginia Foxx (R-NC), original cosponsor of the House of Representatives’ Smarter Solutions for Students Act, issued the following statement upon the most recent Senate failure to address the July 1 doubling of select… Read more »

“It’s obvious the White House’s apparent choice to lead from behind on this issue isn’t working. Though House Republicans voted more than a month ago to approve a long-term solution to protect student borrowers from an arbitrary doubling of interest rates, Senate Democrats haven’t been able to agree on a solution of their own." Read more »

U.S. Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC) chimed in today as well, saying “leading from behind on student loans isn’t working.” Read more »

The MBA program is proud to recognize Jianfen Xu (Nancy) for her recent honor placed upon her by Representative Tom Cole (Oklahoma). In a recent trip to Washington D.C., Baltimore, and New York, Nancy’s traveling companion and friend, Joe Bryan, who is an adjunct professor in the English department here at Appalachian, introduced Nancy to Representative Virginia Foxx. Ms. Foxx was already aware of how Nancy and Joe met, a story that deserves an award itself. Read more »

“It’s obvious the White House’s apparent choice to lead from behind on this issue isn’t working. Though House Republicans voted more than a month ago to approve a long-term solution to protect student borrowers from an arbitrary doubling of interest rates, Senate Democrats haven’t been able to agree on a solution of their own. The policy differences between the House’s Smarter Solutions for Students Act and the President’s original budget proposal are minor. The President should direct his Senate to build off of those commonalities and not waste the opportunity we have to strengthen America’s student loan system together. Preserving the politics of this annual fight would be a real disservice to students and taxpayers.” Read more »

Republicans, and leading higher education and budget experts, Chairman John Kline (R–MN) and Representative Virginia Foxx (R–NC) introduced H.R. 1911, the Smarter Solutions for Students Act. This commonsense legislation simply moves all federal student loans (except Perkins loans) to a market-based interest rate. Under the bill, student loan interest rates would reset once a year and move with the free market, much like they did from 1992 to 2006. Interest rates for subsidized and unsubsidized Stafford loans would be based off of the 10-year Treasury Note plus 2.5 percent, capped at 8.5 percent. Interest rates for graduate and parent PLUS loans would be based off of the 10-year reasury Note plus 4.5 percent, capped at 10.5 percent. Read more »

“We think going with the market in a culture like ours – which is a capitalistic one – is better than relying on politicians to arbitrarily decide what the rates will be,” Foxx told a student from Indiana who asked about affordability during the discussion. Read more »

Virginia Foxx emailed supporters with the following announcement and statements. Read more »

Representative Virginia Foxx, the subcommittee’s chairwoman and a Republican of North Carolina, suggests that an alternative accreditation system be created to meet the changing landscape of higher education. Read more »

On Thursday, June 13 at 10:00 a.m., the Subcommittee on Higher Education and Workforce Training, chaired by Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC), will hold a hearing entitled, “Keeping College Within Reach: Discussing Program Quality Through Accreditation.” The hearing will take place in room 2175 of the Rayburn House Office Building. Read more »