Figures Gives Remarks at Press Conference on Loan Equity for Advanced Professionals (LEAP) Act
WASHINGTON – Today, Congressman Shomari C. Figures (AL-02), alongside Representatives Tim Kennedy (NY-26) and Jill Tokuda (HI-02), held a press conference to introduce the Loan Equity for Advanced Professionals (LEAP) Act that they are co-leading. The bill corrects a disparity made in H.R. 1, the Republican-led reconciliation bill, which drastically reduced borrowing power for advanced degree essential health students such as nurses, physical therapists, occupational therapists, and public health workers, while leaving limits for other professionals untouched.
The LEAP Act creates parity by raising the cap for graduate students, ensuring these vital professionals have the same borrowing capacity as their peers.
Watch Rep. Figures’ statement on YouTube.
Below are Rep. Figures’ remarks, as delivered today:
Too often in this administration, we’ve seen actions come down that leave the average, everyday American asking the question: What about me? Whether it’s tax breaks to the billionaires that leave everyone else who makes an average wage in this country saying, What about us? Or whether it’s today, where we see actions by this administration that prioritize doctors’ and lawyers’ education while leaving teachers and nurses and occupational therapists and social workers saying, What about us?
This bill fixes that. We see them. We see you. Educators hold a very special place in my heart. I think they should hold a special place in the policy positions that we take as a congress because none of us, in any profession—in any job—would hold the position that they hold today without the help and benefit and the expertise and the professionalism of educators.
To tell teachers that your degree path is not worth the same level of funding as a doctor or lawyer is just flat out wrong, and we are here to correct that today.
I stand here even as a lawyer, but I can tell you I would not be a lawyer without those educators—without those teachers. And we as society, we turn a blind eye—or a lot of us pretend a lot of problems don’t exist but social workers, they do. They see them. They deal with the ills of society that a lot of us don’t have to see and to tell them, as members of congress, that your career is not worth the same level of funding as certain other professions is bad policy. It’s bad humanity. It’s indecent. It’s not what we should be doing. And so, I will sit here today, as I do every day, and stand up for educators, stand up for social workers, stand up for nurses.
I live in a district and represent a district that is one of the worst healthcare districts in America. We have nursing shortages, we have doctor shortages, we have hospital shortages and closures. And so to support a policy position that will only exacerbate those problems is not something that I can do.
We need to be doing everything we can to support the creation of more nurses, the creation of more career paths in the healthcare field in general. We have to do this. This should not be a political issue. It should not be a partisan issue. This is an issue that is good for business. It is good for economy. It is good for the healthcare outcomes in all of our districts. It is something that we have to do. It is the right thing to do.
And I want to thank Congressman Tim Kennedy for his leadership on this particular bill as well as my other colleagues here for their support on it. We’re going to stand up for the average every day American. We’re going to stand up for those professions that matter because no one should be left in a position when it comes to funding their education where they have to ask the question what about me, what about my career?
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