Sunday, Sept. 30, 2007 | 6:57 a.m.
WASHINGTON - One Friday this month, as Washington was deep into concern over the Iraq war, Congress turned its attention to domestic policy and checked off a Democratic campaign promise.
Making college more affordable had been one of the party's top proposals last fall as Democrats sought to aid middle-class families. The tab for a full-time student at UNLV runs $17,000 this year for tuition, rent, books and other costs.
Passage of the final bill was one of those rare moments in this 110th Congress when Democrats and Republicans lowered their fists. The House voted 292-97; the Senate 79-12. All five members of Nevada's delegation said yes.
When President Bush pulled out his pen at the White House ceremony last week, he told the students and lawmakers gathered: "I'm really looking forward to signing this bill." And he did.
On a plane headed to Las Vegas by week's end, Democratic Rep. Shelley Berkley reflected on the accomplishment: "This is an example of what we can do when partisanship is left outside the door."
Berkley knows how valuable college aid can be. Student loans got her through her undergraduate years at UNLV in the 1970s, as well as law school. She finally paid off her debt by the time she was elected to the state Legislature, 10 years later.
Now when she visits the campus where her two sons are students, she said , she hears "students talk about this all the time - and the fact that it's very hard to make ends meet."
UNLV is largely a commuter school, with students struggling to balance work, classes and families. "This is going to ease the burden in a number of ways," she said.
As college costs have risen nationwide, two-thirds of college graduates leave school with about $20,000 in debt, according to the consumer watchdog U.S. Public Interest Research Group. Even in Nevada, where students can benefit from the Millennium Scholarship, students rely greatly on grants and loans.
The college aid package provides relief by slashing student loan interest rates from 6.8 percent to 3.4 percent over the next five years, saving students as much as $4,400 over the life of the average loan, Democrats said.
The law also increases the maximum amount of Pell Grants from $4,050 in 2006 to $5,400 over the next five years. These funds are awarded to students based on family need, and last year went primarily to those whose families earn ed $62,000 or less. At UNLV more than $11 million in grants were awarded.
Additionally the law allows loan forgiveness over time for students who take jobs as teachers, nurses, firefighters or in other public service careers.
How will Congress pay for these new benefits? By trimming the subsidies the government had been paying to companies providing student loans. The law will take $20 billion from the lenders.
Student loan companies protested, saying they will suffer without the government's help. The subsidies allow the firms to earn a profit while providing loans at lower rates. The loss would drive some firms from the market, they warned. Over time students and families will be left to pay higher prices and become more reliant on government-run programs.
"The size of the federal government just got bigger," America's Student Loan Providers, an association representing college loan lenders, warned in a statement. The loan industry has taken hits after reports of cozy relations with some institutions.
Republican Rep. Jon Porter was undeterred by the lenders' warning because he sees the subsidies as "corporate welfare," his spokesman said.
"The congressman believes these subsidies were unnecessary and it's more of a priority to make college more affordable," Porter spokesman Matt Leffingwell said.
A more awkward version of bipartisanship led last week to passage of a substantial expansion of children's health care.
House Republicans who had initially opposed the bill to expand health care for children in working-class families were brought on board after the legislation was scaled back - and they realized that Democrats planned to make it a large campaign issue next year.
Even as Republicans warned the bill was a step toward government-run health care, Porter was among several dozen House Republicans who bolted from their party to join Democrats.
Porter wavered all day over crossing party lines, until the final hour , when he voted yes. Nevada's other Republican representative, Dean Heller, voted against, as did Nevada Republican Sen. John Ensign.
After , Porter said the vote was "a huge victory for Nevada."
But the margin of victory was tighter than the one for the college aid package, and the bill will not likely withstand Bush's promised veto.
Democrats promise to continue sending the president the bill in hopes he will eventually sign it or until enough Republicans join to overturn his veto, an approach that likely would be seen as more hardball politics than bipartisanship.
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