June 28, 2013

Dear Friend,

I wanted to provide a quick update on what I have been up to in Washington and San Diego.

Student Loan Interest Rates

On Monday, July 1st, federal student loan interest rates will double from 3.4% to 6.8% because Congressional leaders, once again, refused to compromise. A majority of members in both the House and Senate agree that doubling rates is a bad idea, but because they didn't agree on the solution they're complacently letting it happen. Would you let a fire burn because you couldn't decide which hose to use to put it out? Probably not, but that's exactly what Congressional leaders are doing.

This failure will costs students in San Diego and across the country thousands of dollars a year. I will continue to push my colleagues to come together to fix this. A college education should be an attainable goal for hard working students of all backgrounds. I was proud to stand with other San Diego Representatives, Susan Davis & Juan Vargas, at Mesa College last week to bring attention to this crisis.

Speaking out against the doubling of student loan interest rates at San Diego Mesa College

Speaking with Constituents Directly

Last weekend I held another Congress on Your Corner community meeting, this time visiting Scripps Ranch. A great crowd showed up to discuss jobs and the economy, immigration reform, and a range of other issues. This week I also hosted a telephone town hall with over 10,000 constituents who wanted to talk about this week's Supreme Court decisions, the prospects for immigration reform, and the inexcusable backlog of cases at the VA, among other topics. I will host another Congress on Your Corner community meeting and telephone town hall in July. Watch my website for details.

Honoring Sally Ride

Last week I introduced a bipartisan bill to posthumously award Dr. Sally Ride the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest award given by Congress to a civilian. In addition to being the first American woman in space, Dr. Ride was an educator, role model for women and girls, and proponent of science and math education. She is a deserving awardee and I will continue to build a coalition of members to move this bill forward.

Published Writings

I enjoy writing, and being on an airplane 12 hours a week means I have a lot of time to do it. I've had several op-eds published in recent weeks. I called for action on the budget in 'The Hill' which can be read here, highlighted the need for continued support of the military's biofuels and energy diversification program with my colleague Tulsi Gabbard which you can read here, and in the Union Tribune I discussed the need for a national Employment Non-Discrimination Act to protect LGBT Americans in the workplace which you can read here.

Stay in Touch

As always I encourage people to email me here, visit my website at scottpeters.house.gov, and follow me on Facebook at facebook.com/congressmanscottpeters or Twitter at twitter.com/repscottpeters.

Sincerely,