House passes student loans, highway jobs bill
House passes student loans, highway jobs bill
WASHINGTON
(AP)
–
The House on Friday overwhelmingly passed legislation to salvage 2.8
million jobs, mostly in construction, and forestall a sharp increase in
interest rates on college loans.
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The
measure cleared the House on a 373-52 vote and Senate approval was
expected shortly. The compromise legislation came as lawmakers scurried
toward a Fourth of July recess. The bill also aims at shoring up the federal flood insurance program.
The
bill would spend more than $100 billion on highway and transit programs
over two years. And it would also prevent a doubling of interest rates
on new student loans, which was scheduled to go into effect Sunday.
A
deal clearing the way for passage of the bill was reached after
Republicans gave up their demands that the bill require approval of the
contentious Keystone XL pipeline and Democrats gave way on environment protections.
The
development came amid a legislative session that has brought
considerable scorn to the institution as a "do-nothing" Congress.
The
burst of legislating comes just four months before the November
elections, giving lawmakers achievements to show off to voters who have
increasingly held Congress in low esteem.
"It's a jobs bill," said Sen. Barbara Boxer,
D-Calif., who led Senate negotiations on the transportation portion of
the package. She estimated the bill would save about 1.8 million jobs by
keeping aid for highway and transit construction flowing to states and
create another 1 million jobs by using federal loan guarantees to
leverage private sector investment in infrastructure projects.
Sen. Max Baucus,
D-Mont., didn't wait for final passage of the measure to claim credit
for a share of those jobs. A statement issued Thursday by his office
touted the $400 million in transportation aid Montana would receive and
the 13,500 highway jobs in his state the money would support.
"I
worked hard to make sure Montana had a seat at the table and I'm proud
that we were able to get the job done for Montana families," Baucus
said.
In the bargaining that led up to an
agreement on the package earlier this week, House Republicans gave up
their demands that the bill require approval of the contentious Keystone
XL oil pipeline and block federal regulation of toxic waste generated
by coal-fired power plants. Democrats gave ground on environmental
protections and biking, pedestrian and safety programs.
"Critical
reforms in this legislation consolidate our transportation programs,
significantly streamline the bureaucratic project process, encourage
private sector participation in building infrastructure and give states
more flexibility to spend limited highway … resources where they are
most needed," said Rep. John Mica, R-Fla., chairman of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.
The
bill consolidates transportation programs and reduces the number of
programs by two-thirds. It also revamps rules on environmental studies
of the potential impact of highway projects, with an aim toward cutting
in half the time it takes to complete construction projects. And the
measure contains an array of safety initiatives, including requirements
that would make it more likely passengers would survive a tour bus
crash.
But Democrats and Republicans also found plenty to criticize in the transportation deal.
"At least it's not as bad as our Republican colleagues wanted," complained Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., who has champion bike and pedestrian programs. "But make no mistake, it is not a bill to be proud of."
The
bill would spend about $100 billion on federal highway programs over
two years, but puts off the politically tricky decision on how to pay
for them after that. The federal 18.4 cent-a-gallon gasoline and 24.4
cent-a-gallon diesel taxes are no longer enough to pay for current
spending on highway and transit programs. And two commissions and an
array of private sector experts have said the U.S. should be spending about twice as much or more on its transportation infrastructure as it does now.
But Congress and the White House
have refused to discuss raising fuel taxes or an alternative long-term
source of money. The federal trust funds that pay for highway and
transit programs are forecast to be nearly broke by the time the bill
expires.
"When the bill expires we face a high
cliff from which the program could fall," said Erich Zimmerman, a
policy analyst with Taxpayers for Common Sense.
The
fuel taxes are not indexed for inflation and haven't been increased
since 1993, so their buying power has steadily eroded. Also, cars and
trucks today are more fuel efficient and the number of miles driven has
flattened, resulting in less gas tax revenue. Since 2008, Congress has
three times dipped into the national general treasury to borrow a total
of $34.5 billion to keep transportation programs going.
Congressional
leaders decided to roll the transportation and student loan legislation
into a single bill because, in the short term, they were both being
paid in part by changes in pension laws.
Congressional
bargainers reached an agreement earlier this week on the $6 billion
college loan portion of that bill that would avert a doubling of
interest rates beginning Sunday on federal loans to 7.4 million
students. The current 3.4 percent interest rate on subsidized Stafford
loans would balloon back to 6.8 percent on Sunday under a cost-saving
maneuver contained in a 2007 law.
The bill
also extends the federal flood insurance program to protect 5.6 million
households and businesses. It addresses a shortfall arising from claims
after 2005's Hurricane Katrina by reducing insurance subsidies for vacation homes and allowing for increases in premiums.
end quote from:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/story/2012-06-29/highway-jobs-student-loans/55920654/1
This is good news for all students with loans. However, the senate which should approve this shortly has to act for this to become law for the next year until this time next year. It costs 6 billion dollars to keep the loan rates low this year just for the next 12 months.
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