By Lauren Camera
Republicans on the House Education and the Workforce Committee plan to introduce a series of bills this week as part of their efforts to reauthorize the Higher Education Act, a sweeping piece of federal legislation that includes the entire student loan system.
On a call with reporters Tuesday afternoon, Chairman John Kline, R-Minn., said the committee will mark up the bills quickly and that he expects floor votes on several of the proposals before the November elections.
The policies included in the forthcoming bills are outlined in an 11-page white paper the committee released Tuesday afternoon, and include some seriously heavy lifts, like consolidating all existing student loans into one loan, and all existing grants into one grant. The road map also proposes streamlining repayment plans into two options: a standard repayment plan, and some sort of income-contingent repayment plan, both of which paralyzed Congress for months last year in a partisan squabble over how to fix repayment plans once and for all.