With the flourish of a bipartisan brush, the Senate approved a bill last night to lower federal student loan interest rates, providing a measure of relief to the 7 million students preparing to finance their futures this fall. Undergraduates borrowing for college this year will pay a 3.86% interest rate, instead of the previous 6.8% rate, while recipients of graduate student and parent loans will pay 5.4% and 6.5%, respectively. However, these likely will be the lowest interest rates students and their families receive for the foreseeable future.

As we’ve previously written, the Great Student Loan Compromise of 2013 ties the interest rate for student loans to the 10-year Treasury rate, but it adds an unexplainable 2.05% fee while subjecting it to market fluctuations. That fee is higher than any other fee charged on government loans, even though the risk of default in student loans is lower than that of, say, direct farm loans. Since the Treasury rate is expected to rise continuously over the next decade, this bill will cause further hardship for low-income and middle-class families, adding to the trillion-dollar mountain of outstanding education debt in this country.

Thanks to successful negotiating by the White House and Senate Democrats, the bill includes an 8.25% cap on undergraduate borrowing rates. In a stunning move, the Senate rejected an amendment to lower the cap to 6.8% offered by Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) in a 46–53 vote.  The Senate also rejected an amendment by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) to sunset the bill’s provisions, so it would expire after two years. Since interest rates are projected to surpass 6.8% in three to five years, students could be worse off than if Congress does nothing. 

Why would 53 senators vote to make college less affordable for the families of the Class of 2021 and beyond? I’m not prone to speculation, but it should be noted the government is expected to make almost $200 billion over the next 10 years from student debt payments, including an additional $700 million from this deal. The higher the interest rate, the more money the government has to fulfill the GOP’s goal of paying down the federal deficit by heaping more debt onto students and families rather than asking corporations and the super wealthy to pay their taxes.

The House is expected to pass the bill within the next week and families of current and incoming students will breathe easier. Yet in this deal, Congress traded short-term relief for a heavier long-term burden and rejected a more adequate safeguard. Was it worth it?