Student Loan Fix Fails in Senate
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Hemera/Thinkstock(WASHINGTON) — A one-year student loan fix, backed by Democratic leaders, failed in the Senate Wednesday on a procedural vote.
The vote was 51-49 in favor of moving the bill forward. It needed 60 votes to advance.
The Senate is still debating student loans. Following the vote, Sen. Tom Udall (D-N.M.) took to the floor to express disappointment.
“Today, we failed, and the nation’s students pay the cost of that failure,” Udall said.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has not yet spoken about the vote.
The bill was unlikely to advance, as three Democrats (Joe Manchin, Tom Carper, and Angus King) have joined with Republicans to support the competing, GOP-backed bill — a long-term fix that would tie loan rates to 10-year Treasury bonds but would not cap interest rates for new loans, a point Democratic leaders oppose. Republicans have criticized the idea of only lowering rates for one year.
King and Manchin voted against moving forward with the Reid-backed, one-year fix.
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