Lawmakers Again Target Maligned Student Loan Subsidy

By Nick Anderson

Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, December 30, 2005; Page A06

Twelve years ago, Congress passed a law meant to phase out an obscure interest rate subsidy for providers of student loans. But the lenders exploited legal loopholes and falling rates to enlarge their take from the federal government -- aided recently, critics charge, by an acquiescent Bush administration.

Now, lawmakers are on the verge of passing legislation they say will eventually kill the subsidy that refused to die.