Key Vote: Student Loan Interest Rates - See How Your Representative Voted Here!

By Max Pappas
April 27, 2012

Freedom Works:

On Friday, 27 April, 2012, the House of Representatives voted on the “Interest rate Reduction Act”, H.R. 4628. Introduced and rushed to the floor by the Republican leadership in the House, this bill ostensibly seeks to help students by preventing an upcoming automatic increase in interest rates for federal student loans. The problem is, not only does artificially depressing interest rates cost billions of dollars in taxpayers’ money, it also sends a false price signal that leads to more student taking loans who cannot afford to repay them. Worse, the more readily available loan money leads universities to continue to believe that they can hike tuition rates, creating a vicious cycle of increased student debt and higher education prices.

Read more about why FreedomWorks opposed the bill in our Key Vote notice HERE.

Unfortunately, the bill passed, 215-195. Only 30 Republicans voted against the measure, joined by a large majority of the House Democrats, most of whom voted against the measure because it took funding away from Obamacare. See how your representative voted HERE.