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Panel is pressed to go easy on lending industry |
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By Elana Schor
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Posted: 06/08/07 07:30 PM [ET] |
As the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee prepares a filibuster-proof bill to eke out $750 million in savings from subsidies to private student-loan companies, 14 senators from both parties are pressing the panel to go easy on the lending industry.
HELP Chairman Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) reportedly has circulated a higher-education draft bill that would slice more than $20 billion from subsidies to the private banks that lend to college students. His panel’s final product will be reconciliation-protected, needing only 50 votes to pass under the budget resolution.
But in a letter sent yesterday to Kennedy, HELP ranking member Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.), and Senate leaders, the bipartisan group said that Kennedy’s bill, or even the $18 billion in subsidy cuts sought by President Bush, may be unworkable.
“Since Congress has already eliminated most of the subsidies which were widely agreed to be excessive, another round of cuts of the [$18 billion] size would be inconsistent with the desire to meet the needs of the low- and middle-income families being served by these programs,” Sens. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) and Mel Martinez (R-Fla.) and their colleagues wrote.
Other senators signing the letter included John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Trent Lott (R-Miss.), both members of leadership; freshman Jim Webb (D-Va.); centrists Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Olympia Snowe (R-Maine), who voted for the Democratic budget; and Tim Johnson (D-S.D.).
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