Senators Block Bill to Keep Student Loan Interest Rates from Doubling on July 1

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Rich Williams

Statement of Rich Williams, U.S. PIRG Higher Education Advocate, on Today’s Vote on S. 2343

U.S. PIRG

[WASHINGTON, D.C.] – “We are deeply disappointed that Senators blocked a bill to keep the interest rates on Stafford student loans from doubling.  

“Recently, student loan debt surpassed $1 trillion – even greater than total credit card debt.  

Just last week young people attended town hall meetings from Florida to Wisconsin to urge members of Congress to fix the problem.  Returning this week, Senators were greeted by more than 500,000 signatures from supporters around the country.  

“The bottom line is that this is important to future graduates and their families, it is a top concern among students, and has support from across the political spectrum.

The message to Congress is clear: get it done.

“There are any number of ways to pay for this important extension of low interest rates and we urge members to work together, on behalf of the almost 7.5 million students facing increased debt, to find a bipartisan solution.”

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U.S. PIRG, the federation of state Public Interest Research Groups, is a non-profit, non-partisan public interest advocacy organization.

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Track the campaign on Twitter at #DontDoubleMyRate.

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