Illinois U.S. Senator Dick Durbin discussed the impact of student loan debt and college affordability with students, alumni and staff at Southern Illinois University Carbondale.
Durbin says he is working with fellow lawmakers on legislation called the Bank on Students Emergency Loan Refinancing Act. It would allow undergraduate students and young people with undergraduate degrees to pay back their outstanding loans at a lower rate of 3.86%. He says many loans now carry rates of nearly seven percent.
SIUC graduate Lauren Cook is a temporary employee at the university who is concerned about how she and her husband will pay off their student loans. Cook says her husband is a graduate student at SIUC.
Durbin says there are an estimated 1.7 million Illinoisans paying off student loans.
The legislation lowering the student loan interest rates would be fully paid for by enacting the Buffett Rule, which would limit special tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans.