Like a college kid nearing the end of the semester, Congress has irresponsibly delayed until the last second action on two bills it should have finished long ago. An all-nighter or two may be needed to pass these measures before the Saturday deadline hits. Both are important, both can be done and both will have serious impacts if Congress doesn't finish its work on time.
One is a national transportation bill needed to fund highway and other transportation projects - and the family-supporting jobs that depend on them. The Senate already has passed a two-year bill that, although not ideal, will provide many good things, including better prioritization of projects and more accountability at the federal and state levels. Most important, it provides the funding necessary to repair crumbling roads and bridges - those in both the federal and local systems - and provides necessary improvements to the nation's highway system.
Crafted in a bipartisan effort, the bill consolidates nearly 200 federal transportation programs into about a dozen, and it gives more flexibility to the states to decide transportation policies. At the same time, for the most part, it keeps intact federal highway, transit and other surface transportation projects, which according to a Democratic estimate, provide nearly 2 million jobs.
It's not perfect: Wisconsin will take a hit in transportation aid, and the bill only covers the next two years, which means Congress will be fighting over the same issues in a relatively short time. But it's the best thing on the table right now and deserves passage this week.
By contrast, the House bill is only a stopgap measure for a few months, shortchanges Wisconsin even more than the Senate bill does and is loaded with extraneous features that have little to do with transportation. Earlier this year, the House bill received bipartisan criticism from groups such as the conservative Club for Growth, Taxpayers for Common Sense and the Natural Resources Defense Council. When Club for Growth and NRDC are on the same side, you know something's seriously wrong.
House members need to come around and approve the Senate's bill.
Student loan rates: The other measure that deserves passage this week is an extension of the current low interest rate on federally subsidized student loans. The rates on Stafford loans are now scheduled to go from 3.4% to 6.8% on Sunday. The White House estimates that 7.4 million borrowers would be affected by a rate increase, which would cost them, on average, about $1,000 over the life of their loans. About 30% of undergraduates now carry such loans.
While $1,000 may not sound like much, the possibility of an interest rate hike comes as college costs continue to escalate and as student loan debt soars to meet those costs. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York projects that 15% of Americans, or 37 million people, have outstanding student loan debt. Total student loan debt outstanding in the country now has surpassed $1 trillion. For the first time, student loan debt is bigger than credit card debt.
Letting the rate double now will only increase the debt burden that students have to bear. Yes, students have to decide whether a college education is worth that debt and, yes, universities and colleges need to look at their escalating costs. That's worth a national discussion. But in the meantime, universities are continuing to raise tuition as the University of Wisconsin System recently did, and students need help.
Senate leaders said Tuesday afternoon they had worked out a deal to freeze the rate for another year, although details still need to be worked out. Here's hoping they do that - and that the full Congress passes the measure - by Saturday.
- Mike De Sisti
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