July 16, 2012

Included in the legislation signed by President Obama was a bipartisan agreement to hold interest rates on federal Stafford loans at 3.4 percent for another year. If Congress and the Administration had not acted, the interest rate on these loans would have doubled to 6.8 percent.

Before signing the bill, the President said that it was time for Washington to "start doing more to reduce the debt burden that our young people are experiencing." The U.S. Conference of Mayors supported this freeze, unanimously adopting a resolution on this issue during its 80th Annual Meeting in Orlando.