CBS NEWS – After months of legislative wrangling and one missed deadline, the Senate passed a bipartisan bill on Wednesday that would affix interest rates on federally sponsored student loans to financial markets, allowing them to vary over time but setting a cap on how high the rates are allowed to climb.
The compromise, negotiated by Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W.V., Richard Burr, R-N.C., and Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., passed by a margin of 81 yeas to 18 nays.
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Interest groups and liberal Democrats warned that the bill, after lowering rates in the near term, would expose borrowers to higher interest rates in the years ahead as the economy picks up steam.
Their concerns, however, failed to derail a bill that enjoyed the support of the White House and was passed by a bipartisan coalition of Republicans and Democrats who delivered a frank message to resistant caucus-members: this is the best we’re going to get.
Read more at CBS News.
