Student Loan Interest Rates

Floor Speech

Mrs. BEATTY. I rise today to address the recent doubling of interest rates on federally backed, needs-based student loans. Students deserve access, not obstacles, to higher education. These rate hikes will make college less affordable at a time when we should be encouraging, not discouraging, people to seek higher education opportunities to grow our economy and to create jobs. But due to House Republicans' failure to act, the interest rate on college loans has doubled from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent for some 7.4 million students.

In these tough economic times, Democrats understand we should be making every effort possible to increase access to higher education for all Americans. There is no time left. We need to act now to reverse the rate hike and keep student loan interest rates low so more Americans can have a fair shot at a college education.

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