Obama Will Veto House Measure on Student Loans

As we posted yesterday, the House was going to vote on a Student Loan extension. The legislation passed H.R.4628: Interest Rate Reduction Act which reduces funding for the Prevention and Public Health Fund and now H.R.4628 will surely face a veto if it makes it to the White House.As the White House explained (pdf):

Unfortunately, rather than finding common ground on a way to pay for this critical policy, H.R. 4628 includes an attempt to repeal the Prevention and Public Health Fund, created to help prevent disease, detect it early, and manage conditions before they become severe. Women, in particular, will benefit from this Prevention Fund, which would provide for hundreds of thousands of screenings for breast and cervical cancer. This is a politically-motivated proposal and not the serious response that the problem facing America’s college students deserves. If the President is presented with H.R. 4628, his senior advisors would recommend that he veto the bill.

As Nancy Pelosi said, “We prefer tax subsidies for big oil rather than the health of America’s women.”