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Student loan overhaul seems likely to join Senate health-care bill

By Shailagh Murray and Lori Montgomery

Washington Post Staff Writer

Thursday, March 11, 2010; 4:49 PM

Senate Democrats said Thursday that they are inclined to add an overhaul of the nation's student loan program to the final health-care bill. The move would create a potential double victory for President Obama, who has championed both causes as among domestic priorities. And Senate Majority Whip Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) said Thursday, "There was a stronger feeling for including" the education proposal. Some senators disagreed with the strategy, Durbin said, adding that a final decision has yet to be reached. Under the student loan proposal, subsidies that now support private lenders would be shifted to other student assistance programs, including Pell Grants for families struggling to afford college tuition. "Some of the things accomplished here are really going to help a lot of people across America," Durbin said.

Senate Budget Chairman Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) had been one of the chief opponents of the maneuver, for fear that it would provoke procedural challenges from Republicans. But he said the Senate parliamentarian had suggested in a preliminary ruling that combining the bills could work, provided Senate Democrats strike the right balance on cost. "I'd say yes, we're leaning toward it," Conrad said. He added that advocates of the student loan proposal would have to pare it down before the provisions could be added. House Education and Labor Committee Chairman George Miller (D-Calif.), who has argued strenuously for including the student loan measure in the final bill, said Thursday, "Senators have a simple choice here: They can either choose to continue sending tens of billions of wasteful subsidies to lenders, or they can invest that money directly in students and families."

House and Senate leaders appeared to be closing in on a package of fixes to the Senate health-care bill that would clear the way for final passage of Obama's top domestic policy initiative. The education proposal would be included in the fixes package, and protected from a GOP filibuster in the Senate under special budget reconciliation rules. Under the emerging plan, the House would accept the version of health-care reform that the Senate approved on Christmas Eve, along with adjustments sought by House leaders to key provisions, mostly aimed at reducing the bill's financial burden on middle-class families.

Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) refused to commit to a timetable for finishing the bill, despite the White House's request that the House complete its work by March 18, when Obama is scheduled to depart for Indonesia and Australia. "Our clock starts ticking when we get the final CBO report," Pelosi told reporters Thursday, referring to a final cost estimate for the fixes package from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. Pelosi said she assured House Democrats at a meeting this week that they would have "at least one week" to consider the bill after the CBO report is released. "It may take longer," she said. "We will take up the bill when we're ready to take up the bill. But it's not something we want to drag out." White House press secretary Robert Gibbs acknowledged Thursday that the House would miss the March 18 target.

The fixes bill is expected to run about 100 pages and address core policies in the health-care bill, including subsidy levels for individuals and families to help with the purchase of health insurance; Medicaid reimbursement levels for states, to help finance a vast expansion of the program; expanding the Medicare drug benefit; and reducing a excise tax on high-value insurance plans that the Senate would impose, to be replaced mainly by a Medicare tax on unearned income for wealthy individuals.