Democrats Divided Over Student Loan Bill

By BURGESS EVERETT | 7/22/13 4:07 PM EDT

Senate Democrats are increasingly divided over the bipartisan student loan rates bill blessed by leadership last week.

The bill is expected to come up for a vote as early as Tuesday and pass with strong votes from both parties, though a number of Democrats have publicly blasted the bill, including Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Jack Reed (D-R.I.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.).

Reed and Sanders are trying to ensure that their alternative proposals get votes before agreeing to move forward on a bill that took weeks for bipartisan negotiators to finish. Sanders wants a vote on his amendment to sunset the bill to sunset after two years when interest rates are projected to rise while Reed wants more stringent caps on loan rates.

The push for those alternatives could further delay a bill that blew through a July 1 deadline due to congressional inaction, although Democratic leadership was trying to accommodate side-by-side votes as part of an agreement to vote on the bipartisan bill.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2013/07/student-loan-bill-democrats-94572.html#ixzz2ZsYTGShp

ALSO READ: In Mass., Warren, Markey balk at student loan deal

By STEVE LeBLANC / Associated Press / July 22, 2013

BOSTON (AP) — U.S. Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Edward Markey on Monday criticized a Senate compromise on college loans, saying the deal doesn’t go far enough to protect students from crushing debt.

While it could lower rates for students and parents in the near future, it also could mean higher rates as the economy improves. And Warren said that while she’s in favor of compromise, the deal currently on the table doesn’t do enough to reduce what she says are profits the government is making from student loans.

‘‘From my point of view what a compromise means is we reduce at least a little bit the profits we’re making off the backs of our kids,’’ Warren said after she and Markey, both Massachusetts Democrats, toured an incubator for new high-tech startup companies. ‘‘I don’t think it’s a compromise to say we’re going to keep making more and more profits off our students.’’

Federal lawmakers are trying to undo a rate hike for subsidized Stafford loans that took hold July 1. Rates for new loans doubled from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent.

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Read more: http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/2013/07/22/sens-warren-markey-balk-student-loan-deal/ZeXBLX6B0z0jbkkGpKyysO/story.html