Schumer Wants Student Loan Interest Rate Hike Blocked

New York, NY (WIBX) - New York Senator Charles Schumer is calling on Congress to quickly approve a deal being negotiated in the Senate that would block an impending student loan interest rate hike set to take effect July first. 

Schumer says without action, student loan interest rates for federally subsidized Stafford Loans will double from 3.4% to 6.8% for all new loans

He says that would add thousands of dollars in interest payments to the costs of attending college.

In 2007, Congress lowered the rate of federally-subsidized Stafford loans currently held by some eight-million undergraduates nationally and more than a quarter million students in New York.