Crisis Averted
Congress worked together on Friday to avoid a major Government student loan interest rate hike and saved construction jobs in the process.
FOX News Radio’s Steve Taylor reports from Washington DC:
The interest rate for Federal Student Loans would have doubled to 6.8% this weekend if Congress hadn’t acted. The House of Representatives was first:
House Floor: “On this vote the yeas are 373, the nays are 52. The conference report is adopted.”
About an hour later, the Senate passed the bill. The same bill revamps highway construction programs, avoiding a weekend deadline that had threatened about three million construction jobs.
In Washington, Steve Taylor, FOX News Radio.
Read the White House Statement on the passage below:
Statement by the Press Secretary
We are pleased that Congress has finally passed a bipartisan bill to stop student loan interest rates from doubling and put Americans to work rebuilding our nation’s roads and bridges. For months, President Obama has been calling on Congress to take up these two important priorities before middle class families pay the price for inaction. Thanks to Congress heeding that call today, millions of American students will avoid a $1,000 debt hike while millions of construction workers will be able to stay on the job. But there is still much more Congress can do to create jobs and grow the economy, and the President will keep up pressure until they pass pieces of his American Jobs Act that independent economists say could put us on the path of creating another million jobs.
