ABC News\u2019 Cara Newlon reports:<\/p>\n
Senate lawmakers say that a compromise to prevent student loan interest rates from doubling before the impending July 1 deadline appears unlikely.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I were a betting person, I\u2019d say that\u2019s something we\u2019ll come back and attempt to fix retroactively,\u201d Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., told ABC News.<\/p>\n
If the Senate fails to reach an agreement, interest rates on new Stafford student loans will double from 3.4 to 6.8 percent. The doubling would affect the 7 million students who receive Stafford loans, which serve only the neediest of students.<\/p>\n
The Senate\u2019s effort to pass comprehensive immigration reform legislation, which is expected to be put to a vote by the end of this week, has consumed most of the bandwidth in the chamber.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re working right through immigration,\u201d said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. \u201cWe are going to wrap up immigration either Thursday or Friday. The only question now is whether we can come up with a list of amendments. And I think both sides want to do that, but having said that, I don\u2019t know we can do it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe probably can\u2019t get it done this week,\u201d said Sen. Tom Harkin, chairman of the Senate Health Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.<\/p>\n
Harkin\u2019s original proposal, which was outvoted in the Senate, would keep rates at 3.4 percent for two years.<\/p>\n
A bipartisan coalition of senators reportedly began working on a compromise last week which would link interest rates to financial markets and fix those rates for the life of the loan. The plan, developed in talks by Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, and Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., would leave rates at about 3.8 percent, according to the Associated Press. It would not include a cap on interest rates.<\/p>\n