07/31/13
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 31, 2013
Washington, DC – Congresswoman Donna F. Edwards (MD-4) released the following statement upon House passage of H.R. 1911, Bipartisan Student Loan Certainty Act of 2013. On July 1st, student loan rates doubled from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent. Under the bipartisan Senate bill, undergraduates will borrow at 3.86 percent, a cut from 6.8 percent. Graduate students will borrow at 5.4 percent, a cut from 6.8 percent. Parents and graduate students borrowing PLUS loans will borrow at 6.4 percent, a cut from 7.9 percent. Compared to current law, the bipartisan Senate bill provides students $25 billion in student debt relief from 2013 to 2018.
“The compromise reached in the U.S. Senate and passed by the House helps hardworking students and families, reduces rates on all new loans this year, and will save undergraduates an average of $1,500 on the lifetime of their loans. While this is by no means a perfect bill, it is critical that the Congress took an important, and long-overdue, step to help restore student loan security for 11 million Americans.
“It is also critical that we find a long-term solution to student loan debt that does not cripple future generations of students and parents. It is unfortunate that we did not use this opportunity to invest in our students without costing them millions of dollars of debt. In order to accomplish these goals, this compromise will need to be revisited.”
“My decision to attend Wake Forest University then law school came at a cost of $100,000, a quarter of that was a result of interest and service fees. I understand personally that we need a short- and long-term solution to ensure college affordability. But it is irresponsible, at a time when a college education is more important and expensive than ever, to expose students and parents to more uncertainty or greater financial burden.”
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