Bills in Brief

With rising tuitions increasingly putting the pinch on middle income families, Congress passed a handful of measures in '07 designed to ease the cost of sending little Joey to college. Below is snapshot of the bills the House and Senate considered with what was finally passed.

Round 1

Congress started off with HR 2669, sending the president a final bill in September '07. In it,
maximum Pell grants were hiked to $5,400, graduates who entered civil
service jobs for ten years got their loans forgiven, loan payments were
capped at 15% of a grad's income and interest on federally backed loans
was whittled down to 3.4% - all paid for by $12b in cuts to subsidies
for private lenders. (WP & NYT)

Round 2

In a second bill, senators used the reauthorization of the Higher Ed Act to to keep an eye on tuition hikes and on sweet deals made between lenders and financial aid officers - as well as to simplify financial aid applications for low income families (NYT). The House is fashioning its own, similar, bill. No word on whether it'll be voting on it this year or next.

Updated November 18, 2007

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