House passes transportation, loan bill

WASHINGTON, June 29 (UPI) — The U.S. House Friday passed a bill to extended federal highway programs and low student-loan interest rates.

The bill, passed by a vote of 373-52, also would extend the National Flood Insurance Program for five years, The Hill reported. All 52 “no” votes were from Republicans.

The Senate is expected to pass the bill later Friday, marking the final piece of major legislation expected to pass before the November elections, The Hill said.

Rates for federally backed student loans will double from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent without legislative action, and the transportation funding would expire soon without the bill, which extends it through 2014.

“This conference agreement … means jobs, and it means that we will not have further layoffs,” said Transportation and Infrastructure Committee ranking member Nick Rahall, D-W.Va. “It means that we will continue to improve our economy, and when all is said and done, I would choose to vote for American jobs any day.”

“It is good to be at this point in the completion of a long-overdue transportation reform bill. A lot of people said it couldn’t be done,” said Rep. John Mica, R-Fla. “Tomorrow would actually close down thousands of transportation projects around the country. Transportation departments around the country were on the verge of sort of handing out IOUs or shutting down. Probably millions would have been put out of work if we hadn’t acted.”

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