Hasan Minhaj’s testimony before Congress on the student loan crisis

I want to welcome today's distinguished panel mr. Seth Rothman executive director the student vara protection center ms purses you staff attorney at the National Consumer Law Center MS Ashlee Harrington senior policy counsel Center for Responsible Lending mr. Hassan men ha writer producer and host with shed light on the issue of student loan servicing mr. Jason de lisle American Enterprise Institute without objection all of your written statements will be made part of the record each of you will have five minutes to summarize your testimony when you have one minute remaining a yellow light will repeat up here at that time I would ask you to wrap up your testimony so we can be respectful of both the witnesses and the committee members time Mr Francis Harrington mr. Manoj you are now recognized for five minutes to present your testimony thank you so much I want to thank chairwoman Maxine Waters for the opportunity to testify and I would like to thank ranking member Patrick McHenry for taking the time to Google Who I am cute very name is Hasan Minhaj I'm a Muslim and I condemn radical Islamic terrorism that has nothing to do with anything I just want that on the record it's good to get ahead of these things now chairwoman waters invited me here today because I host a political comedy show on Netflix called Patriot Act which means I'm a Oh some of you guys royalties diem we can talk later now we recently did an episode on the student loan crisis and it really hit home with our audience because 44 million Americans owe more than 1.6 trillion dollars of student loan debt in fact the day we shot our episode we pulled our studio audience it was only about 200 people in that room alone had over 6 million dollars of student loan debt now granted our audiences mainly unemployed Poli Sci majors but that's still a lot of money now this issue is sidelining millions of Americans people are putting off marriage kids homeownership and retirement especially my generation so I'm 33 and growing up it was drilled into our heads you gotta go to college if you want a middle-class job and we even tell kids today look if you don't go to college you might as well get a face tattoo and then they point to post Malone and we're like okay that's one guy he's a very popular musician but it's true two-thirds of all jobs in America require at least some college this is the standard now and that wasn't the case when most members of this committee were in school and you paid far less for your degrees that's not speculation we looked up where the 60 members of this committee went to college in what your school's tuition was at that time even adjusting for inflation College Koch cost way less across the board so chairwoman Maxine Waters your tuition at Cal State LA in 1971 was the equivalent of about a thousand dollars a year today Cal State costs well over six grand that's more than a 500% jump congressman King right in 1965 congressman King paid the equivalent of almost ten grand a year at Saint Francis College today st. Francis cost over 25 grand on average this entire committee graduated from college 33 years ago in paid and inflation adjusted tuition of eleven thousand six hundred and ninety dollars a year today the average tuition at all of your same schools is almost twenty five thousand dollars that's a 110 percent increase over a period of time when wages have gone up only 16 percent so people aren't making more money in college is objectively way more expensive do you see what's happened we've put up a pay wall to the middle class and if there's one thing Americans don't deserve more of its paywalls that's why we put up our entire show for free on YouTube it's also because you can't really find anything on Netflix it's like the lost-and-found bin of entertainment you're like great another show about people who love cake now despite these number you these numbers you often hear the idea these kids wouldn't be in trouble if they just took some responsibility but they're trying to be responsible they're investing in education and they are trying to pay their loans backs and yet many borrowers are still treated like deadbeats because the government has put their financial futures in the hands of predatory for-profit loan servicing companies companies like navien and other companies you will hear from today have a history of misleading borrowers and pushing them into repayment plans that in some cases have cost individual borrowers tens of thousands of dollars in unnecessary interest and the worst part is borrowers don't even get to choose their loan servicer the Department of Education chooses for you so there's no competition that makes these companies provide better service now look we know the deck is stacked against unum borrowers in ways that it wasn't 10 or even 15 years ago and they deserve some basic protections Americans should not have to go bankrupt pursuing higher education and they should never be preyed upon by under-regulated loan servicing companies so members of this committee we know the government is capable of stepping in during a financial crisis so really all I'm asking today is why can't we treat our student borrowers the way we treat our banks because 44 million Americans that is too big to fail thank you so much for your time and I will now go back to where I came from mr. Manoj as you outlined in your show the question of cost is a fundamental issue - and you address that and you also address the servicers so you go from the the question of the debt but the key question as well is and you get to this in some ways but underwriting there is no underwriting for a loan there's no question of a student being informed enough about the decision they're making that is a life-changing decision and we have the federal government creating a mechanism and then using private sector folks to then service their decision right so you don't you don't say underwriting but you get at it right that these students are given way too many choices for their financial literacy basically and don't have an understanding of what that will mean to their life for a decade two decades three decades and that decision they make is a 17 or 18 or 19 year olds and the impact that's going to have on their ability to buy a house or a car or have children or getting married and the societal impact on that so you do a great job of highlighting that I have to say and you're a fan of the show I don't want to do that I'll get you that not helpful I'll get you that tea shop I'll watch you right after I finish watching the Chappelle special so we'll move from from there mr. lile as you sir yes yes one of the things we covered on the show is the fact that when a student borrower calls their loan servicer say navient navient we'll rush you off the phone often times in seven minutes or less and they will advise you to go into loan forbearance instead of an income based repayment plan which would probably be better for you so that simple misinformation is a problem and I think student borrowers need just basic bill of rights like a protection to to not let that perpetuate all right thank you I get the sense you would complain though if navient kept them on the phone no not you wouldn't even tolerate that from United airhead all of these terms to them to make sure they knew exactly what they were into I guess people would be very upset about that too but they they want their best option not a CVS receipt all right then give me a share and very helpful I'm here thank you what was the question again what's the major problem yeah what are your thoughts on the role of the US Department of Education in managing its loans just the fact that they outsourced it to private loan servicers your general thoughts I mean my general thoughts is this are you familiar with the rapper lil Uzi vert no I think it's a huge problem that the youth of America have to bombard their favorite rapper or pop musician and ask them to pay back their student loans they're not even asking for selfies anymore are you a fan of Taylor Swift I well are you swifty cuz even her fans have gone up to her and said we please pay back my student loans that's how desperate student borrowers are I'd like to turn to you mr. Minaj and ask you in your investigations and your expose what Sharpe practices you know deceitful practices deceiving practices manipulative practices did you all see in connection with the servicing so we start with should anybody have taken out the loan in the first place we can disagree about that and the cost of higher education but in terms of servicing what did you see where there were improprieties specifically we saw when it came to servicing when a student who was actively trying to find the best possible option to repay when they would get on the phone with their loan servicer they oftentimes were given misinformation so instead of telling them to hey you should probably do an income based repayment plan because they were trying to get them off the phone within seven minutes or less they would say go into loan forbearance so that's actively students are given bad advice that will hurt them later on down the road and they think they're doing the right thing because the person on the phone told them to the expert told them to did you find any particular servicer to be more abusive than others or maybe not abusive but navient was really bad do you have Comcast navien is like the Comcast of Loan Servicing you ever feel that frustration where you're like oh they're the worst I think you have no choices because the Department of Education put you in this arranged marriage that you can't get out of okay anybody else for what it's worth I was wait-listed to go to law school you were yes I I could see why I'm high because your professors would have had to take you on all day so actually think I was a great I think I was a great student and for what it's worth my fingers are still crossed I'm waiting it's been twelve years but you never not I yield back to the chair thank you shooting the fh8 based debt to income ratios on the amount student borrows actually pay yes miss you absolutely is Herenton yes mr. Mandela sure mr. Gonzales I'm I'm very passionate about this issue because I'm lucky when I left college I didn't have any student loan debt because I have immigrant parents and they made me live at home with them so I don't have crippling student loan debt I have crippling emotional debt and Congress has yet to stand up and do anything about it and stand up to my parents and say what you did was wrong but you don't have to have crippling student loan debt to to have empathy for people who are investing in their futures that's why I'm here today thank you oh and I would like to hear the panel discussion on the land student loans for at least a year to the can find a job and ability to refinance student loans and I start with chill intro I'm not an expert when it comes to refinancing although I am very good with Microsoft Excel and macros on a system that's getting that done mr. Manoj do you know what the cost of in-state tuition is currently at UC Davis go Aggies yes so oh three oh four my freshman year no no today today so today it's fourteen thousand four hundred ninety dollars oh do you know what the oddest points bonus points absolutely do you know what the out-of-state tuition is I don't know that estate it's forty four thousand dollars I think it's relevant I don't think I don't think that's worth it though mister if you're out of state I think you just we're gonna I feel like I got so much time you invest xscape did you just call it a wild mr. duChemin time because if you have a twenty on your AC t you're playing not going to Harvard oh I mean or if your mom's Aunt Becky you can just pay your way and at us what are we talking about it was like what are we talking about here but you and I were both former MTV stars you wasn't it material I was the star of Emma youth disaster date season five you know what it's like we can't afford Manoj that MTV CH I'm gonna clear my time okay I know you think it's a joke it's not what you think it is and you want to come in here and make light of a serious situation so I don't think it's funny so you can sit here and and and do your film and make people laugh well we're trying to F a serious conversation and I have only five minutes so okay leave it alone and mr. Manoj since you recently did a story on this and you pointed out in your opening testimony that the borrower does not control who their servicer is does this story that I'm hearing from Liz sound familiar to anything that you heard when you were researching your show yes can you tell me what another story briefly that you may have heard that's similar it was it was I can't say the names of the the loan service provider that they were switched to but it's very similar to that it's very similar to the story that you mentioned where because of misinformation and they were told the wrong information they were led down a path that was not beneficial to them in the long term yes thank you and mr. Manoj does this seem like an administration that's putting private companies ahead of the interest of its borrowers I just think it's terrifying that the head of the predatory loan servicing company is now in charge of this thing that's supposed to protect you well moving on I'd like to mister no I agree with everything they've said I think it'd be great if we could just go tools clear history on everyone's debt and I also think we should have a digital clock in here I think that's a bipartisan position we can all agree on I'm sorry I don't know what time it is right now I thought for a second I thought it was 7:10 and I Arta freaking out it's a seven well it was the lot that if you follow the shorthand technically it's 140 all right well order a Mickey Mouse clock next time thank you so much thank you typically allow it if you think the law does allow persons who do not have degrees to participate in the forgiveness program please raise your hand I just like to get a quick survey if you think the law does allow it okay all but well maybe don't you don't know something I don't know the answer okay that's good enough okay well look

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Length: 15min 50sec (950 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 10 2019