As President Obama held a student-loan event at the White House Friday, a Congressional representative from the Hudson Valley was holding one with students in her district.
Democratic Congresswoman Nita Lowey held a roundtable with students at Rockland Community College, calling for Congress to act to prevent student loan rates from doubling July 1. Lowey, the senior Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, talked about her vote against a Republican bill that she says could force students into loans with higher interest rates. She says unless the House and Senate agree to legislation in the next 30 days, interest rates on Stafford loans, the most popular type of federal student loans, will increase from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent for students who apply for aid for the 2013-2014 school year. More than 20,000 college students in Lowey’s 17th district currently rely on Stafford loans. Last week, House Republicans passed a bill under which student-loan interest rates would change year-to-year.
