Senate Democrats’ top priority this week will be trying to reverse a doubling of federal student loan interest rates that took effect July 1 and ending a months long impasse that could affect 7 million students who take out the loans each year.

Reid will try to schedule a vote on a plan (S 1238) by Democrats Jack Reed of Rhode Island and Kay Hagan of North Carolina that would extend the old fixed rate of 3.4 percent for one year to give Congress more time to negotiate a long-term proposal tied to market rates. The Reed-Hagen plan is supported by 34 Democrats and would offset the $4.25 billion cost of the rate extension by changing the tax treatment of certain inherited IRAs and 401(k)s.

We’re watching to see whether the effort attracts any Republican votes, or if the GOP stands firm behind a competing plan that would peg all newly issued loans to the Treasury Department’s 10-year borrowing rate — plus 1.85 percent for subsidized and unsubsidized undergraduate Stafford loans, 3.4 percent more for graduate Stafford loans.

The Republican plan is supported by Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin III of West Virginia and Thomas R. Carper of Delaware, as well as Maine independent Angus King. It is similar to a House-passed student loan measure (HR 1911) that’s attracted a veto threat from the White House.

Related article: The Interest Rate Impact by InsideHigherEd.com