WASHINGTON, DC – Lake County's members of Congress, John Garamendi (D-Fairfield) and Mike Thompson (D-St. Helena), voted on Wednesday for a bipartisan compromise student loan bill.

H.R. 1911 will help keep down student loan interest rates, allowing students to take advantage of historically low interest rates.

The Senate passed the agreement by a bipartisan vote of 81 to 18 on July 24th. The House passed the legislation by a bipartisan vote of 392 to 31.

The bill will now go to President Obama for his signature.

“Our middle class will continue to struggle and our economy will never reach its full potential if we don’t work together to make college more affordable for working families,” said Thompson. “This agreement is a positive step that will save students and their families thousands of dollars. Now, Congress must continue working to make sure no student is ever denied a college education because he or she can’t afford it.”

“This compromise is the best of a bad situation. In the short term, given the makeup of this Congress, this was the best possible outcome for students and parents looking to pay for an education,” said Garamendi. “College will be more affordable with this bill than without it, and that’s the bottom line.”

The legislation was necessary after subsidized Stafford Student Loan interest rates doubled from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent on July 1.

The bill sets the interest rates for subsidized and unsubsidized undergraduate loans at 2.05 percent above the current rate of the 10-year Treasury note.

It also sets unsubsidized graduate loans at 3.6 percent above the 10-year Treasury note. Graduate PLUS loans are set at 4.6 percent above the 10-year Treasury note.

Rates are capped at 8.25 percent for undergraduate loans, 9.5 percent for unsubsidized graduate loans and 10.5 percent for PLUS loans.

The bill allows students to lock in today’s low interest payments for the life of the loan, so they will know how much they will owe before taking out a loan.

The 10-year rate at the most recent Treasury auction was 1.81 percent, meaning that for Academic Year 2013-2014, the interest rate would be 3.86 percent for subsidized and unsubsidized undergraduate Stafford loans compared with 6.8 percent currently.

The new rates are retroactive for any loans taken out since July 1, 2013.

Over the 2013-18 period, undergraduate students will save $25 billion compared to the current law’s 6.8 percent interest rates, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

A freshman undergraduate student, who begins school this year and takes out the maximum amount of loans, will save $3,300 on his or her interest payments.