James Q. Lynch, The Gazette, Cedar Rapids, Iowa –
Iowa Rep. Bruce Braley is “extremely concerned” Congress will fail to meet a July 1 deadline to prevent interest on student loans from doubling, but Sen. Chuck Grassley thinks there is bipartisan support for action, even if it’s only a temporary fix.
“It’s time to quit playing games,” Braley, a Waterloo Democrat, said Wednesday. “This is too important for politics.”
Grassley, however, sees politics working in favor of a resolution.
Holding the line on college student loans has the support of President Obama and presumptive GOP nominee Mitt Romney, and the Senate majority and minority leaders, he said. The House has already approved a plan to hold the line.
“It’s going to get discussed and resolved” with that kind of support, Grassley said. However, he said he has not been a party to negotiations on the issue.
How it will get resolved is still in question. Grassley likes the House plan, which calls for redirecting the profit on student loans back to the student loan program. Those funds were diverted by the then-Democratic-controlled Congress to fund part of the Obama health care reform plan.
That makes sense to the Iowa Republican.
“Take it back out of ObamaCare and use it for what it ought to be used for,” Grassley said. “Profit on student loans ought to be used to keep student loans inexpensive.”
That approach “won’t fly” in the Democratic-controlled Senate, Braley said.
“It’s time to put politics aside and come up with a reasonable compromise everybody can live with,” Braley said. “It’s time to quit playing games and get it done.”
He’s not optimistic about the chances for compromise.
“Compromise is much more difficult to achieve now than when I came Congress in 2007,” said Braley, who is running for a fourth term. That partly due to people being elected to pursue “rigid, ideological objectives and they don’t think compromise is part of what’s expected of them here in Washington.”
Given that environment, Grassley said a temporary extension of the current rate may be all that is possible, “but it will have to resolved before adjournment in October.”
