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Graduating students arrive for Commencement Exercises at Boston College in Boston, Massachusetts May 20, 2013.
Credit: Reuters/Brian Snyder
WASHINGTON | Thu Jul 18, 2013 9:05am EDT
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama supports compromise legislation holding down interest rates on student loans and was involved in Senate negotiations, a senior administration official said on Thursday.
Senators reached a deal on Wednesday to temporarily hold interest rates on student loans at lower levels, as they raced to get the measure completed before an August deadline, a Senate aide said.
A Democratic official said the measure would not raise money from charging students higher rates and would set a cap to protect students from future rate increases.
Interest rates on new federal Stafford loans doubled to 6.8 percent this month when lawmakers failed to meet a July 1 deadline to prevent an automatic increase.
According to details of the Senate plan that were available late Wednesday, students would see interest rates dialed back to 3.4 percent for a couple of years, after which rates could be allowed to rise sharply.
Undergraduates would see loans go as high as 8.25 percent after 2015, graduates would face rates as high as 9.5 percent, and parents would face rates as high as 10.5 percent.
(Reporting by Mark Felsenthal; Editing by Vicki Allen)
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Comments (3)
Why is this an issue at all? If you sign for a loan at 6.8%, then frikkin' pay it off. It appears the Democrats are going for votes again.
CSParty: "Why is this an issue at all?" Why? Because we need to remain competitive with the rest of the world. Most of the rest of the developed world offers free higher education, while the price of ours continues to skyrocket. Increasingly, high school grads from poor or Middle Class families cannot afford a college education. We need to remove obstacles from American's wanting a higher education. Keeping loan rates down is a sensible way of doing that.
Sen. Warren has proposed keeping interest rates on student loans set at the same rates the Fed loans money to our banks, which is next to nothing. If we do it for our banks, why not our students? If we're not going to do anything about the cost of a college education, we should at least minimize the cost of student loans.
Why are conservatives so against helping fellow Americans? It's like you folks hate your own countrymen and want to see the country fail.
flashrooster wrote: """Most of the rest of the developed world offers free higher education""". Really? Where did you get your information from, because I ave lived in 4 different continents and been to 29 different countries and I believe you are incorrect. While there may be countries that offer higher education, you might want to check on that "free" thing you're talking about. Can you explain why I had to pay for 3 degrees and now YOU and Obama want to give it away? Oh BTW, even giving free education does not actually force people to learn. But, back to the main point of this articla, so please stick with me here. Why should ANYONE who signed for a student loan under whatever terms they had get a break now? And why is our government calling it a crisis?
