Washington, DC --Today, U.S. Rep. Ed Perlmutter (CO-07) voted to maintain critical health services for women and children while keeping current low interest rates for student loans.  Unfortunately, Congressional Republicans played political games by choosing to cut and offered Americans an extreme gimmick to gut critical health services for women and children to pay for another short-term scheme to prevent an increase in the interest rates. 

Perlmutter supported an alternative bipartisan measure to provide permanent relief in the student loan interest rate sponsored by Rep. Joe Courtney (D-CT), However Tea Party Republican leadership refused to allow a vote on that measure.

Perlmutter stated, "House Republicans need to stop bringing Americans to the brink with their partisan gamesmanship.  Our students, families, and all Americans need certainty and stability in our economy. I support maintaining lower interest rates for student loans. We shouldn’t build more hurdles for young people to get the education or the skills needed to succeed. Students should not be forced to forgo an education because of a lack of funding. I want to put Coloradans and Americans back to work by providing them the tools for success, and higher education is a tool for our children’s and our country's future, and critical for our ability to compete in the global economy.

I'm frustrated House Republicans keep picking winners and losers by requiring the hardworking Americans of this country to shoulder all of the burden for maintaining critical services for our seniors, our children and our families in order to provide further tax breaks for oil companies, billionaires and millionaires.

I will continue fighting for student loan fairness, and I hope to work in a bipartisan way to prevent an increase in the interest rate without forcing families to choose between investing in higher education tools for success in the future and basic preventative health services."

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