I wanted to thank Congressman John Kline (R-Minn.) for his leadership on preventing student loan interest rates from doubling on July 1. Kline’s bill, HR1911, is the only bill to date that has passed either body of Congress that would prevent federal student loan interest rates from doubling. Kline’s bill is based on a proposal put forth by President Barack Obama that would tie student loan interest rates to the 10-year treasury rate. The Associated Press published an article on May 9 titled “Republicans to back Obama’s student loan plan” and even called it a “rare win” for the president.

In spite of this show of good faith and bipartisan support for the bill during the committee process, Obama and Senate Democrats continue to play politics with the issue and are dragging their feet. The Democrat-controlled Senate has yet to pass a single bill that would prevent student loan rates from doubling on July 1.

It’s for this reason I was so surprised to see College Democrats at the University of Minnesota holding an event on June 18 called “Calling out John Kline,” where they misleadingly attacked Kline while Senate Democrats including Al Franken and Amy Klobuchar sit on the sideline, content to play politics with such an important issue.

I hope the College Democrats will wake up to the fact that the do-nothing Senate, led by the ineffective Franken and Klobuchar are the ones who need calling out on the issue of student loan rates. I thank Kline for looking out for students and his bipartisan work to prevent student loan rates from going up on July 1.