With an increase in the student loan interest rate averted for a year, both chambers are turning their focus toward a longer-term solution to keeping college affordable. This week, the education committees in the House and Senate will hold hearings aimed at finding ways to stabilize student loans and to encourage states and colleges to restrain tuition.

Acting independent of each other, the House Education and the Workforce Committee on Wednesday will examine state efforts to curb college costs, while the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee on Thursday will look at a variety of affordability strategies in place at the federal, state and university level.

Education and the Workforce Chairman John Kline, R-Minn., has said he has spoken with Speaker John A. Boehner, R-Ohio, about how to eventually shift to a market-driven variable rate that would be pegged to Treasury securities and would fluctuate based on numerous factors. HELP Chairman Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, has said he is open to that approach, but he emphasizes that any sort of variable rate should have a cap to prevent it from going too high.

Full article can be found on CQ.com.

The following is the witness list for the Senate HELP Committee hearing on college costs this Wednesday:

• Dr. Don Heller, Dean of the College of Education at Michigan State University; East Lansing, Michigan
• Dr. Steven Leath, President of Iowa State University; Ames, Iowa
• Dr. Jim Murdaugh, President of Tallahassee Community College; Tallahassee, Florida
• Thomas J. Snyder, President of Ivy Tech Community College; Bloomington, Indiana
• Dr. Carol Twigg, President and CEO of the National Center for Academic Transformation; Saratoga Springs, New York