U.S. Senate lawmakers on Tuesday reached a bipartisan agreement to revive the expired federal Perkins Loan Program for two years, though the deal would tighten some of the eligibility criteria. The loan program expired at the end of September after Senate lawmakers did not act on a House measure that would have extended the program for a year. Senator Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, the Republican who chairs the Senate education committee, had blocked action on the Perkins extension. Alexander has called for eliminating the Perkins Loan Program as part of an effort to simplify the federal government’s array of student loan programs. On Tuesday, Alexander’s office framed the two-year extension as a managed shutdown of the program. “This agreement closes down the Perkins Loan Program in a responsible way over the next two years while Congress works to find a long-term solution for students that makes it simpler and easier to apply for aid and afford college,” an Alexander aide, who declined to be named, said in an email.

December 16, 2015 ・ From Inside Higher Ed