Dem senator suggests next student loan vote will take place Thursday

By Daniel Strauss - 05/09/12 04:28 PM ET

Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) suggested a repeat vote on moving a bill on extending student loan interest rates could happen Thursday morning.

While Boxer was making a speech on the Senate floor about why Republicans should drop their opposition to S. 2343, the Stop Student Loan Interest Act, she said a vote on the legislation could happen Thursday.

"So I am asking my Republican friends as we have another vote on this — I think it's going to be tomorrow morning — think of Delmita Turner of California and what this means for her," Boxer said.

Senate Republicans successfully blocked the measure from moving forward in the chamber on Tuesday. Both Republicans and Democrats want to extend the 3.4 percent interest rate on Stafford loans for another year but they disagree on the funding method. Democrats want to pay for the extension by closing a tax loophole on shareholders of S-corporations, while Republicans want to take money from a preventative fund in the Obama administration's healthcare reform law to pay for the bill. If Congress does not act, the rate is set to double on July 1.

After the failure to move the bill forward on Tuesday, Democrats said they planned to bring the legislation up for a vote again.

As of Wednesday it was unclear how Congress would be able to extend the interest rate. Republicans haven't wavered in their opposition to the funding method in the Democrats' plan and, even if the bill passed the Senate, it would likely die in the GOP-controlled House of Representatives. The House recently passed its own bill to extend the interest rate with Republicans' preferred funding method.

Later on Wednesday, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) suggested that the apparent standstill on the legislation is only temporary and a bill would be passed in a matter of weeks.

"Here's what else I guarantee you," Rubio said. "This is going to get solved. You mark my words, a few weeks from now they'll come up with a deal or a bill that will have enough votes to pass the House and Senate and this will get solved. But not before we score political points, right?"