Student-loan borrowers now owe the federal government more than $1-trillion for the first time, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announced on Wednesday.
The swelling federal student-loan debt now sits at $1.2-trillion, the bureau estimated. The country passed the milestone with a fitting backdrop: the debate in Congress over student-loan interest rates. Rates for new borrowers of federally subsidized loans doubled, to 6.8 percent, on July 1, with Democrats and Republicans sparring, before and since, over the best way to set future rates.
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