U.S. Rep. John Kline: Senate wringing its hands over student loan rates
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As you may know, the U.S. Senate has failed to pass a bill to deal with the impending doubling of the interest rate of new Stafford subsidized student loans. That leaves the rate to double to 6.8 percent unless lawmakers can strike a deal.
(I've covered the efforts of U.S. Democratic Rep. Keith Ellison of Minneapolis on the matter, as well as a forum he held at the U.)
Democrats have been trying to get a two-year extension of the current rates to buy time for a comprehensive solution. Republicans have wanted to establish a floating market-based rate -- an idea similar both to that proposed in the Obama budget, and the one passed by the House. The two sides differ on rate details, however.
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U.S. Republican Rep. John Kline of Minnesota told Yahoo! in an interview posted yesterday:
"The House of Representatives has passed legislation that will fix this [problem] and the Senate, as is so often the case, is wringing its hands… It would be helpful… if the president would reengage here and say look, we can work a compromise here, we’re pretty close, let’s get out there and get a long-term fix."
Watch Kline's interview and read the summary here, and read the Washington Post story of the political wrangling here.