Lautenberg at Rutgers-Camden campus to discuss student loans, Rowan merger
Sen. Frank Lautenberg will visit the Rutgers-Camden campus to discuss federal low-interest loan rate legislation and take questions on the proposed merger with Rowan University.
The legislation to be discussed at Thursday’s news conference would extend low-interest rates for federal student loans. If Congress doesn’t act by July 1, interest rates for federally backed Stafford loans will double to 6.8 percent.
Update, 4 p.m. Lautenberg has announced the Stop the Student Loan Interest Rate Hike Act will be considered next week by the Senate.
Lautenberg has criticized the merger, which would fold Rutgers-Camden into Rowan.
The deal proposed by Gov. Chris Christie also involves breaking up the scandal-tainted University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, with its medical school going to Rutgers-New Brunswick.
Lautenberg and Christie have often clashed, most famously over the governor’s cancellation of a New York-New Jersey rail tunnel, which Lautenberg had strongly supported.
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