Obama urges deal on roads, student loans

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama is pressing Congress to reach agreement on a transportation bill and a plan to prevent students from having their loan rates double.

Obama said in his weekly radio and Internet address Saturday that Congress should do everything it can to help students attain higher education and repair the nation's crumbling roads and bridges.

Congressional negotiators appeared to be closing in on a compromise that would head off a July 1 doubling of interest rates on federal loans to 7.4 million college students and a separate plan to overhaul federal transportation programs. The chief source of partisan conflict is how to pay the measure's $6 billion price tag.

The goal is to push legislation through Congress this week so the current 3.4 percent interest rate on subsidized Stafford loans can be preserved for another year. A 2007 law gradually reduced interest rates on the loans but required them to balloon back to 6.8 percent this July 1 in a cost-saving maneuver.

On another front, the two sides were also close to an agreement to overhaul federal transportation programs, according to House and Senate aides from both parties.

For weeks, Obama has ridiculed Republicans for not moving quickly to prevent student loan interest rates from doubling, a stance that Democrats have hoped will boost his support among young voters. With college costs and student debt growing steadily, the issue ties directly into concerns about the economy and jobs that polls show dominate voters' worries.

Though some GOP lawmakers have opposed letting the government set the rates, Republican presidential challenger Mitt Romney and GOP congressional leaders have backed the one-year extension.