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Senator Reed pushing to stop student loan rate hike

Sen. Jack Reed student loan debt at URI

Sen. Jack Reed joins students at the University of Rhode Island who are rallying in support of legislation to prevent interest rates on certain students loans from doubling this year
WPRI

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Sen. Reed unveils student loan bill

Bill would block interest rates from doubling

Updated: Wednesday, 25 Apr 2012, 11:50 PM EDT
Published : Wednesday, 25 Apr 2012, 11:30 AM EDT

  • By Darren Soens

WASHINGTON, D.C. (WPRI) - Rhode Island's senior senator unveiled legislation Wednesday aimed at preventing student loan interest rates from doubling for millions of Americans.

Senator Jack Reed is among the sponsors of a bill that would maintain the current interest rate of 3.4% for federally-subsidized Stafford loans.

The rates are scheduled to increase to 6.8% on July 1.

Senator Reed spoke about the legislation at the University of Rhode Island earlier this month. He said 36,000 Rhode Islanders have federally-subsidized Stafford loans and would be subject to considerably higher monthly payments if the interest rate increase is not blocked.

Nationally, 7.4 million students are affected.

A recent report found that student loan debt in the U.S. now tops $1 trillion, surpassing both credit card and auto loan debt.

Iowa Senator Tom Harkin and Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown joined Senator Reed in introducing the legislation.

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