Sen. Brown Votes Against Student Loan Rate Bill

Republican Sen. Scott Brown has voted to derail a Democratic bill aimed at keeping interest rates on federal college loans from doubling July 1.

Tuesday's vote, largely on partisan lines, came a day after Brown said he supported a one-year extension of the current 3.4 percent interest rate on federal student loans.

Republicans said they favor preventing the interest rate increase but blocked the Senate from debating the $6 billion measure because they oppose how Democrats would pay for it. That would be by boosting Social Security and Medicare payroll taxes on high-earning stockholders of some privately owned corporations.

Brown says it's time to work on a real bipartisan compromise

Massachusetts Democrats say Brown is standing with the national Republican Party, not middle-class Massachusetts families.