McConnell: Highway bill may be coupled with student loans

By Keith Laing - 06/26/12 03:48 PM ET

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Tuesday that a bicameral transportation funding bill could end up being combined with an extension of a low student loan rates before both expire at the end of the week.

Lawmakers have been grappling with both preventing an expiration of road and transit funding and a scheduled increase in student loan interest rates from 3.4 to 6.8 percent, which are both scheduled to occur at the end of June.

McConnell confirmed Tuesday that the issues could possibly be resolved by merging them.

"I think, as we all know, we're moving toward completion this week of both the extension of the student loan rates at the current level for another year" and the highway bill, McConnell said during a news conference at the Capitol after a Republican Caucus luncheon.

"The president's been largely uninvolved in that, but Sen. [Harry] Reid and I have an understanding that we think will be acceptable to the House," he continued. "[The interest rates bill] may or may not be coupled with the highway proposal over in the House. To my knowledge, it is not yet resolved as to whether that will be some kind of an extension or a full multi-year bill, but those two could end up together. Both need to be dealt with this week."

McConnell Democratic counterpart, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (Nev.), said Tuesday in a news conference of his own that the highway funding and student loan provisions could end up moving in the same legislative vehicle.

"We basically have the student loan issue worked out," Reid said. "The next question is, what do we put it on to make sure we can complete it? There are a number of suspects we have, but right now, we don't have that worked out yet."

Reid said lawmakers had to reach an agreement on the transportation funding measure quickly if they hoped to have it approved by both chambers ahead of a scheduled June 30 expiration of the current funding mechanism for road and transit projects.

" We have to have an agreement by tomorrow," Reid said. "Otherwise, we can't get the bill done."

Asked about the possibility of the student loan and transportation funding issues being combined on Tuesday, a spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said "[W]e’ll see what the Senate comes up with."