This document provides testimony, prepared statements, articles, publications, and other materials concerning the issue of augmenting current student financial assistance programs with the addition of direct student loans (Self Reliance Loans), and examines responsible ways in which the federal government should move in this direction. Among the persons providing testimony are the following: U.S. Senators Bill Bradley (New Jersey), Edward M. Kennedy (Massachusetts), Orrin G. Hatch (Utah), Nancy Landon Kassebaum (Kansas), Paul Simon (Illinois), Strom Thurmond (South Carolina), and Daniel K. Akaka (Hawaii) and U.S. Representative Thomas E. Petri (Wisconsin). Additional witnesses giving testimony or prepared statements include, among others,: John Silber, president, Boston University (Massachusetts); Father William J. Byron, president, The Catholic University, Washington, D.C.; Barry Bluestone, professor of political economy, University of Massachusetts, Boston, Massachusetts; Roxie LaFever, vice president, financial aid, University of Phoenix, Phoenix, Arizona; and Elizabeth M. Hicks, coordinator of financial aid, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Materials presented include "Concerns and Unanswered Questions Regarding Income Dependent Education Assistance (IDEA) aka Self Reliance Loans," and a copy of a discussion draft of a bill to amend Part D of Title IV of the Higher Education Act of 1965 to provide for income dependent education assistance. (GLR)