Showing posts with label Children. Show all posts
Congress to double student loan interest rates
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| U.S. Capitol building.(Reuters / Kevin Lamarque) |
Seven million college students will see their student loan costs double on Monday, after a group of bipartisan lawmakers failed to agree on a plan to keep interest rates down.
The Senate adjourned for the July 4 recess on Thursday, but failed to keep interest rates on Stafford loans at the current 3.4 percent rate. The federally subsidized loans are set to expire on July 1, after which the interest rate cap will rise to 6.8 percent.
Congress’ Joint Economic Committee estimates that the average student will be paying $2,600 more starting July 1. On a $23,000 student loan repaid over 10 years, a student would be paying about $3,000 total interest.
“At one level it’s modest, but if you have an entry-level position or can’t find work, it starts to add up,” Terry Hartle, senior vice president of the American Council of Education, told Fox News.
In order to keep interest rates down, lawmakers would have to extend the cap, set a new one, or find another way to keep rates low. A bipartisan group of senators introduced the “Bipartisan Student Loan Certainty Act”, which would have secured a 1.85 percent interest rate on undergraduate Stafford Loans, a 3.4 percent rate on graduate loans, and a 4.4 percent rate on PLUS loans that are issued to parents of students. But after paying little attention to the issue for the past 11 months, lawmakers failed to agree on this proposal and spent the past few weeks arguing about a solution.
“We’re tired of this being a political football,” Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) said at a news conference with the co-sponsors of the bill. “This is a responsible program from the standpoint of the American taxpayer.”
Senate Democrats on Thursday advocated for a temporary one-year delay of the current Stafford loan rates, but Republicans opposed the idea, and the Senate adjourned for recess.
“Last year we kicked the can down the road and passed a one-year extension for only a small group of students… Why would we want to make the same mistake again and just kick the can down the road another year?” Burr told AP.
But Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) believes it would be best to extend current rates until Congress can come up with a better solution, to avoid the rise in interest rates.
“Students across this country would rather have no deal than a bad deal,” Reed said. “We’re at the point where we have to do our best to extend the 3.4 percent interest rate while we work on a good deal, not just any deal.”
Sen. Tom Harkin, the chairman of the Senate education panel, said lawmakers would consider a retroactive fix on July 10. The US government is already forecast to make a record $51 billion profit from the federal student loan program this year at current interest rates, which Sen. Angus King (I-Maine) described as “billions of dollars off the backs of our students.”If lawmakers fail to make a retroactive deal that would undo the impending spike in interest rates, US college students may find themselves unable to afford taking out a federal loan.
Ban on US adoptions won’t be canceled or altered – Russian ombudsman
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| Pavel Astakhov.(AFP Photo / Andrey Smirnov) |
Russia and the US will continue cooperation in the field of adoption, but the ban imposed last year will remain in place, presidential plenipotentiary for children’s rights has said.
Pavel Astakhov talked to journalists in Washington, DC, on Wednesday after another round of Russia-US bilateral talks on problems of cross-border adoptions and Russian children’s rights. “Speculation often appears around the law on US adoptions and often it is about the possibility of a retreat, about the alteration or even cancelation of the law that is already in force. Such suggestions would not be approved and they would not been considered. The law was passed, it will not be changed or altered,” Astakhov told reporters.
However, the ombudsman noted that Russia and the United States had agreed to work together on the joint database of adopted children and initial procedures of this project had already started. Russia is currently engaged in merging its regional adoption databases into a joint federal one, Astakhov said, adding that the US specialists were welcome to study the Russian experience.
Astakhov said that the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency lists about 61,000 adopted Russian children in the country, while Russian consular services have only 37,338 adopted children on their US lists. Moreover, the Russian Education and Science Ministry (the body in charge of orphans in Russia) says that over 40,000 kids had gone to the United States. The ombudsman said it was obvious that the figures did not match and the joint database could be a solution.
Russian news agency RIA Novosti quoted an unnamed official from the US Department of State as saying that the US side would continue to encourage the resolution of all adoptions that were in process prior to the ban “in the spirit of our bilateral agreement and based on humanitarian grounds.”
Washington remains “ready to continue discussions with Russia on inter-country adoptions and the welfare of children adopted from Russia, and [we] have agreed to consult regularly going forward,” the State Department official added.
Russia banned all adoptions of Russian children by US citizens and by proxy of US organizations as part of the so called Dima Yakovlev Law – a broader act seeking to impose sanctions on US officials suspected of Human Rights violations. Critics of the law said that it deprived thousands of kids, many of them ill or disabled, of a chance for a better life. The sponsors of the bill pointed at cases of cruel treatment or even manslaughter that happened with adopted Russian children in the United States and also the complete unwillingness of the US authorities to cooperate with Russia in the investigation of such cases.
The US side usually quotes state laws that do not demand that local police cooperate with diplomats of a foreign country. After the ban came into force, Russia started introducing changes to its internal legislation on adoptions, increasing allowances and generally simplifying the procedure.
Russian senators give green light to 'gay propaganda' ban
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| RIA Novosti / Alexey Filippov |
Russia’s upper house, the Federation House, has approved a bill introducing fines for propaganda of non-traditional sex relations to minors, including in the media, on the internet and via viral adverts.
Some 137 senators voted for the draft law which introduces administrative liability and fines of up to a million roubles (over US$ 30,000) for promotion of homosexuality among children. One senator abstained from voting and no one voted against the legislation.
The controversial bill – which critics fear may spark a wave of homophobia in the country – was approved by the lower house, the State Duma, on June 11. The vast majority of the population – 88 % - is also in favor of the introduction of the ban, according to a poll by the Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VCIOM).
The draft law is not discriminative against LGBT people and is only aimed to protect minors, Federation Council speaker, Valentina Matvienko, emphasized on Wednesday, ahead of voting.
Unlike in the Soviet times, people with non-traditional sexual orientation are no longer prosecuted in Russia, she reminded.
“They are ordinary equal members of the society. As adults, they are entitled to decide how they want to live. But when it comes to minors [the ban on propaganda] is not someone’s whim, but a demand from the society,” Matvienko said.
Under the bill, individuals will be fined up to 5,000 roubles ($US 152) for such propaganda, officials will have to pay up to 50,000 roubles (about US$ 1,500) and companies – up to 500,000 roubles (about $US 15,000).
If law violators use the media or the internet for the promotion of non-traditional sex relations, they will face even harsher punishment. For instance, individuals will have shell out up to 100,000 roubles (about US$ 3,000), while organizations – a million roubles or face a 90-day suspension of activities.
Foreign citizens or stateless persons who violate the ban will face a fine or an arrest for up to 15 days followed by a deportation from Russia.
The law also defines what is considered the gay propaganda of non-traditional relations. It is the distribution of information aimed at forming non-traditional sexual concept in children, describing such ties as attractive, promoting the distorted understanding of social equality of traditional and non-traditional relations and also unwanted solicitation of information that could provoke interest in such relations.
The bill was slammed as “anti-gay” by gay rights activists both in Russia and abroad. The issue was raised again earlier in the week. The Russian president called on Western countries not to interfere with Russian internal affairs, speaking at a media conference during his trip to Finland. He reiterated that the draft law is not about introducing any sort of sanctions on homosexuality and does not violate rights of sexual minorities.
“Some countries ... think that there is no need to protect children from this. We Do. We are not going to interfere,” he said. “But we are going to provide such protection the way that State Duma lawmakers have decided.”
To come into force, the bill has yet to be signed by the president.
