Tag Archives: student

To compensate for stalled negotiations on both health care legislation and a bill that would overhaul the country’s student loan program and improve college students’ access to federal aid, Democratic leaders proposed a solution yesterday that would move both of those hot-button issues forward—combine them, and pass them as one. Both the comprehensive health care bill, which would guarantee health insurance to 30 million uninsured Americans, and the student loan bill , which would replace private lending with direct lending through the government and increase Pell Grant maximums, have faced opposition as Democrats work to pass both through Congress before the November mid-term elections. To kill two birds with one stone, Democratic legislators proposed bundling the two bills into one last night, not only to give the proposals a better chance at passage, but to keep them alive long enough for a vote by the full Senate and House. An article in the New York Times yesterday describes the strong support a dual measure already has among the Democrats, suggesting that adding the student loan bill to the more expansive health care legislation would improve the health care bill’s chances at passage.