Some good legislation on the way?

I read today that the Dems in both the House and the Senate are trying to pass legislation to lower the interest rate on federal student loans. The House bill proposes to cut the interest rate in half (from 6.8% to 3.4% over the next five years) and it passed successfully by a wide margin!

The bill provides "the single largest increase in college aid since the GI bill" and is summarized thusly:

Cutting interest rates in half on subsidized student loans over the next five years.

Making student loan payments more manageable for borrowers by guaranteeing that borrowers will not have to pay more than 15 percent of their discretionary income in loan repayments, and allowing borrowers to have their loans forgiven after 20 years.

Increasing federal loan limits to provide borrowers with additional assistance in paying for college and to help them rely less on costlier private loans.

I assume this applies to grad students, and a portion of the loans I'm borrowing are subsidized (phew!). So maybe over the life of the loan I'll see my interest rate reduce? Hope so. Also, it's good to hear they are increasing the federal limit so that more of the debt can be under these more-favorable terms.

This bill also ends the huge financial incentives private banks get in order to get in this business, and banks will have to assume more risk should the student default. As I mentioned in my other post, the banks are all about profit and no risk, so it will be interesting to see what the banks do in response to this.

UPDATE: I just read that the White House is threatening a veto of this bill.