303,000 Michigan College Students will not take on an extra $1,000 in debt next year because Peters led effort in the House succeeds

Washington, D.C. - Today, after spending months leading the fight to stop student loan interest rates from doubling on July 1st, U.S. Rep. Gary Peters announced that the House and Senate have passed an agreement to prevent this rate hike. As the lead co-sponsor of the Courtney-Peters bill to prevent federal subsidized Stafford loans from increasing from 3.4% to 6.8%, Peters led the fight to achieve one of President Obama’s key priorities for this year. If a deal had not been reached, 7.4 million student borrowers, including 303,000 in Michigan, would have taken on an extra $1,000 in debt for each year that they would have attended college.

“Making college more affordable and accessible for all of our children is one of my top priorities, that's why I spent months leading the fight to stop Republicans from letting student loan interest rates double on July 1st,” said U.S. Rep Gary Peters. “I'm proud to help announce that by building a strong grassroots coalition, we were successfully able to pass an agreement. While there is still a lot of work left to do to make college more affordable, this deal is a step in the right direction which ensures that 303,000 college students in Michigan won't take on an extra $1,000 in debt next year.”

The agreement reached today combined an extension of the current federal subsidized Stafford loan interest rate with the long-awaited federal Surface Transportation Reauthorization bill. As the lead partner of the Courtney-Peters bill to prevent this rate hike, Peters worked to build a coalition of over 150 co-sponsors. A key priority from President Obama's 2012 State of the Union Address, today's agreement marks another big victory for the Administration and 7.4 million college students nationwide.

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