Mary Fitzgerald of the Washington Post reports on a loan bill just passed without opposition by Congress:
Democrats and student loan watchdog advocates have criticized as inadequate legislation passed by Congress to address loopholes that allow student loan companies to collect huge subsidies from the government.
The bill ending the federal guarantee of a 9.5 percent rate of return to student loan lenders was passed Saturday without opposition by the Senate. The House passed it Thursday, also without opposition.
Later in the article, there was this:
Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) said the legislation failed to address what he called the "full interest rate gouging" that loan companies had engaged in.
"What the Congress has done is only a down payment, because it does not close the entire, notorious 9.5 percent student loan loophole, and because even this reform will expire after one year," Kennedy said in a statement. "We will be back through on the first available vehicle to shut down this wasteful corporate subsidy once and for all."
However, what really piqued my interest was this sentence (emphasis mine):
The bill, supported earlier by the administration, expires in one year, with sponsors pledging to find a permanent solution when the higher education law is renewed next year.
