As the clock ticks to a doubling of student loan interest rates on July 1, House Democrats are trying to coerce Republicans into allowing a vote on their legislation to freeze the existing rate for two years.
Led by Rep. Joe Courtney (D-CT), Democrats filed a discharge petition to report the bill to the floor without committee action. It’s a long shot because the motion requires the support of an absolute majority of House members to succeed, which means winning Republican members.
“Across the country today, rapidly-accumulating student loan debt threatens not just individual families but the underpinnings of our economic recovery,” Courtney said in a statement. “Rather than confronting the problem head-on, House Republicans offered a bill the Hartford Courant calls ‘Orwellian’ for claiming to help students, but, in fact, making the situation worse.”
House Republicans have passed their own legislation, which is in part based on President Obama’s own plan, to avert a spike by tying the loan rate to the yield on the 10-year Treasury bill. But Obama has threatened to veto that bill and supports the Democrats’ proposal instead.
The legislation mirrors Senate Democrats’ proposal to fund a two-year freeze of the 3.4 percent interest rate by closing unpopular tax loopholes. Senate Republicans last week filibustered that bill.
