Washington Report

Update: U.S. House Approves Student-Loan Interest-Rate Cut
The U.S. House of Representatives has approved legislation that would cut in half student-loan interest rates during the next five years. Read more.

House to Vote on Halving Student-Loan Interest Rate
Legislation that ultimately would cut in half interest rates on federal student-loans for certain undergraduate students has been introduced in Congress. Read more.

USA Funds Update

USA Funds Provides Updated Information About Higher-Education Tax Benefits
To help your students and their parents make the most of income-tax deductions and credits for families that paid higher-education expenses last year, USA Funds^® offers updated information for the 2006 tax year. Learn more.

USA Funds Expands and Updates Online Training
USA Funds has enhanced its online-training program for financial-aid professionals working at medical schools that participate in the MEDLOANS program, and has updated USA Funds’ entire online-learning catalog. Read more.

Grant From USA Funds Will Support Higher-Education Preparedness and Access
USA Funds awarded a $184,000 grant to the Business-Higher Education Forum to help advance the forum’s latest initiative, “Boosting K-12 Student Achievement: Promoting College Readiness for All.” Read the BHEF announcement using Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Debt-Management Perspectives

Download Data From USA Funds Debt Manager to Update FAMS
Financial-aid administrators can create files of various data elements stored in USA Funds Debt Manager^®, to download and enter into their own Financial Aid Management Systems. Learn more.

Tech Talk

Enhancements Boost Usage of Meteor Network
The Meteor Advisory Team recently announced increased usage of the Meteor Network for 2006. Read more.

Operations Bulletin

Lenders May Use Date of Receipt to Track Validity of MPN With Incorrect Date
With the recent calendar-year change, lenders may receive Master Promissory Notes that were incorrectly dated by borrowers with the year 2006. USA Funds reminds lenders that in these cases, per Common Manual  7.2.A, they may use the date that the MPN was received to track its validity. For more information about this or other education-loan-policy issues, contact USA Funds’ policy advisers.