Senate student loan interest rate bill fails on procedural vote
Video: Senators failed to overcome a procedural hurdle, leaving student interest rates on subsidized student Stafford loans at 6.8 percent. w/ Lyrics
A Senate bill that would restore a low interest rate on one type of federal student loan for another year failed to clear a procedural hurdle Wednesday, sending the issue back to the negotiating table as lawmakers try to reach a consensus before the August recess.
The bill would have also bought lawmakers more time to craft a long-term strategy for setting interest rates for all federal education loans.
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Interest rates for some college loans backed by the government doubled as of July 1, setting up a fight on Capitol Hill and a push to get rates cut before classes begin in the fall.
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The vote was mostly along party lines, with 51 in favor and 49 opposed, well short of the 60 “yes” votes need to advance the bill.
Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) met for hours with White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough and Education Secretary Arne Duncan on Tuesday to discuss a resolution to the matter, but even those intense discussions were not enough to get the bill unstuck.
The proposal at the center of Wednesday’s vote addressed only subsidized Stafford loans, which are mostly used by low- and middle-income students. For two years, the rate has been 3.4 percent instead of the standard 6.8 percent. That rate expired July 1. The bill would have restored the 3.4 percent for another year.
There was also a heated debate at a weekly luncheon for Democratic senators Tuesday, during which Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) criticized a bipartisan bill sponsored by Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) and mostly Republicans. That bill proposes scrapping a set interest rate for all major federal education loans and, instead, setting the rate each year based on the market. The bill does not set a formal cap on how high those rates could go. Warren has said this system will lead to the government continuing to profit off student loans.
Manchin and some of the bill’s co-sponsors insisted on Tuesday afternoon that a formal cap is not needed because of other safeguards in place. They said all students need swift interest rate relief.
Some people say a man is made outta mud
A poor man's made outta muscle and blood
Muscle and blood and skin and bones
A mind that's a-weak and a back that's strong
You load sixteen tons, what do you get
Another day older and deeper in debt
Saint Peter don't you call me 'cause I can't go
I owe my soul to the company store
I was born one mornin' when the sun didn't shine
I picked up my shovel and I walked to the mine
I loaded sixteen tons of number nine coal
And the straw boss said "Well, a-bless my soul"
You load sixteen tons, what do you get
Another day older and deeper in debt
Saint Peter don't you call me 'cause I can't go
I owe my soul to the company store
I was born one mornin', it was drizzlin' rain
Fightin' and trouble are my middle name
I was raised in the canebrake by an ol' mama lion
Cain't no-a high-toned woman make me walk the line
You load sixteen tons, what do you get
Another day older and deeper in debt
Saint Peter don't you call me 'cause I can't go
I owe my soul to the company store
If you see me comin', better step aside
A lotta men didn't, a lotta men died
One fist of iron, the other of steel
If the right one don't a-get you then the left one will
You load sixteen tons, what do you get
Another day older and deeper in debt
Saint Peter don't you call me 'cause I can't go
I owe my soul to the company store
Merle Travis
A poor man's made outta muscle and blood
Muscle and blood and skin and bones
A mind that's a-weak and a back that's strong
You load sixteen tons, what do you get
Another day older and deeper in debt
Saint Peter don't you call me 'cause I can't go
I owe my soul to the company store
I was born one mornin' when the sun didn't shine
I picked up my shovel and I walked to the mine
I loaded sixteen tons of number nine coal
And the straw boss said "Well, a-bless my soul"
You load sixteen tons, what do you get
Another day older and deeper in debt
Saint Peter don't you call me 'cause I can't go
I owe my soul to the company store
I was born one mornin', it was drizzlin' rain
Fightin' and trouble are my middle name
I was raised in the canebrake by an ol' mama lion
Cain't no-a high-toned woman make me walk the line
You load sixteen tons, what do you get
Another day older and deeper in debt
Saint Peter don't you call me 'cause I can't go
I owe my soul to the company store
If you see me comin', better step aside
A lotta men didn't, a lotta men died
One fist of iron, the other of steel
If the right one don't a-get you then the left one will
You load sixteen tons, what do you get
Another day older and deeper in debt
Saint Peter don't you call me 'cause I can't go
I owe my soul to the company store
Merle Travis