July 9, 2013by Ailsa Chang
The Senate is planning to vote Wednesday (click here) on a plan to bring interest rates on subsidized federal student loans back down to 3.4 percent for one more year. The rate doubled on July 1 when the chamber failed to agree on a plan.
While the Senate prepares to take the issue back up, college students are left staring at several competing proposals.
This
fight has been all about what's best for those students. To make that
point, House Republicans recently gathered more than 100 of them to
sweat and squint under the summer sun for a press conference on the
Capitol steps. The guys were wrapped in wool suits and ties — most of
them congressional interns plucked from offices just that afternoon....Last year USA students paid over $50 billion US to it's government. That was more profit than any other American company in the USA.
There is a bill in Senate Appropriations regarding a longer term fix for students called, "The Higher Education Act."
July 9, 2013
by Kelly Field
Federal spending on the National Institutes of Health (click here) would increase by $307-million and the maximum Pell Grant would rise by $140, to $5,785, under an appropriations bill for the 2014 fiscal year that was approved by a Senate panel on Tuesday.
The measure, which will be taken up by the full Appropriations Committee on Thursday, would increase spending on Federal Work-Study by $50-million and on the TRIO and Gear Up college-preparatory programs by $11.7-million and $5-million, respectively. Supplemental Education Opportunity Grants would receive the same level of funds as in the 2013 budget, under a calculation that, like others in the bill, was based on pre-sequester amounts—before across-the-board spending cuts took effect in March....
