Econintersect: Last summer legislation was signed into law that lowered the interest rates for new student loans to current market rates. For the school year just ended rates for undergraduate loans were 3.86%, for graduate students 5.41% and for loans to parents (PLUS loans) 6.41%. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D, MA) has submitted legislation to extend the lower rates to allow refinancing of all existing student loans to the same rates. The bill, S. 2292: Bank on Students Emergency Loan Refinancing Act, is still in committee.
Sen. Warren is taking to the public her campaign to get the bill out of committee and presented for House and Senate votes. Having obtained President Obama’s support Warren is appealing for petition signatures to put additional pressure on the Senate Finance Committee and ultimately the full Senate and House to take affirmative action. The same bill has been introduced in the House by Rep. John Tierney (D, MA) and has been referred to the House Committee of Education and the Workforce and the House Ways and Means Committeee.
Warren’s bill has 35 senate co-sponsors.
Here is a link to the petition:
Sources:
- Obama signs student loan interest rate legislation into law (Jenna Johnson, The Washington Post, 09 August 2013)
- S. 2292: Bank on Students Emergency Loan Refinancing Act (govtrack.us, Introduced 06 May 2014)
- Elizabeth Warren Pressing Congress On Student Loan Debt (Kimberly Hefling, The Huffington Post, 06 May 2014)
- With vote nearing on Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s student loan debt refinancing bill, President Barack Obama offers up his support (Robert Rizzuto, Mass Live, 07 June 2014)
- Elizabeth Warren’s ‘Bank on Students’ Emergency Loan Refinancing Act to Get Obama’s Endorsement ( Natasha Hakimi Zapata, truthdig, 09 June 2014)
- Tell the Senate: Let people refinance their student loans! (MoveOn.org, Not dated)
