House Approves Update to Higher Ed Bill

WASHINGTON

      Finding the best way to pay for college a struggle for many families has become a hassle for U.S. House of Representative lawmakers, too.

      The House last week approved a college affordability measure, but only after a partisan fight about whether the bill would help students.

      The result was an unusually divisive update to the Higher Education Act, the law aimed at making a college education more affordable. The focus now turns to the Senate, which is working on its own legislation.

      The House approved its bill 221-199, in a near party-line vote.

      For consumers, the bill would make it simpler to apply for federal aid, and put pressure on colleges that repeatedly increase tuition.

      It also would require schools to provide information about their costs to the U.S. Department of Education, to be posted on its Web site.

      But Democrats and Republicans could not agree on the core point of the new bill; how the federal government should help people deal with rising tuition.

      The election-year sniping continued after the final vote.

      House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., called the bill a “sham that does not help American students and families.” House Majority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, said Democrats helped shape the bill and then walked away from it, which he called “reprehensible.”

      Most Democrats objected after failing with their own version, which would have cut in half the interest rate on student loans this July.

      Republican leaders said forcing colleges to be more accountable for costs will help families. They also touted an increase in the maximum Pell Grant, although Congress rarely approaches that limit when it appropriates money for the grants.