(Updates to add comment from Sens. Richard Durbin, Jay Rockefeller and Lamar Alexander, more details) By Corey Boles Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- Senior congressional Democrats said Thursday they hope to wrap legislation shaking up the student loan industry with the major push towards health-care legislation.
Sen. Tom Harkin (D., Iowa) and Rep. George Miller (D., Calif.), the lawmakers who have championed the higher education overhaul, said they believed attaching it to health care would win more votes for the final push toward completing the controversial legislation.
They said they wanted to use a fast-track procedure known as reconciliation to win congressional approval for both measures. By using this approach, only 51 votes would be required in the Senate to approve the package, less than the 60 normally required to pass major legislation.
Congressional aides have floated the possibility in recent days, but Thursday marked an escalation in pressure on Democratic leadership to agree to the idea.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.) said that using reconciliation for both health care and education is an option, but that no decisions had been made.
Senate Democrats met to discuss the issue Thursday afternoon, but didn't reach any consensus agreement, according to Assistant Majority Leader Richard Durbin (D., Ill.)
Durbin said that he personally supports the move, but that the caucus wasn't there yet. He said a decision would be made soon on how to proceed. Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D., W.Va.) said though that he opposes the notion of patching together health care and the loan overhaul plan.
"I think the health bill stands on its own," Rockefeller said.
Republican senators said they would fiercely oppose an attempt by the majority to "add another Washington takeover" according to Sen. Lamar Alexander (R., Tenn.), a member of the Senate Republican leadership.
"Why in the world would you take an unpopular health care bill and add that to it?" Alexander said Thursday.
An aide to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) said she supports rolling the student loan and health-care efforts together using reconciliation, but also said no decisions had been made.
The House approved its version of the higher education bill last year, but the matter has been held up in the Senate, due to the opposition of a number of moderate Democrats who have concerns over the student loan changes.
It would seem that using reconciliation would likely be the only way to get the bill signed into law this year.
Harkin rejected the notion that including the education bill would potentially imperil the wider health-care effort, due to the opposition of moderates in the Senate Democratic caucus.
"Quite frankly, I believe the addition of the education reconciliation bill will help get us votes [for health care]," Harkin said.
The central feature to the education piece is a move to end private lenders' involvement in the origination of student loans, with the federal Department of Education becoming the sole provider of loans through the government-backed program.
The money saved from ending subsidies paid to banks and other lenders would be used to increase Pell grants for poorer students.
The Congressional Budget Office said last week that ending private origination of loans would generate around $67 billion in savings over the next decade, $20 billion less than it estimated last year.
At a press conference Thursday, Harkin warned that unless the changes were put in place, students who rely on the grants to afford college faced a 60% cut in the amount of assistance they receive in 2011.
Miller said the increased investments that would be made in community colleges and historically African-American colleges could help win the votes of liberal members of the caucus that are wavering on health care currently.
It was unclear Thursday when a revised bill would be available. Harkin said the legislation would reduce the budget deficit by $5 billion, half the $10 billion in savings identified by the initial House legislation last year.
Copyright 2009 Dow Jones Newswires
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