The House proposal ties student loan interest rates to 10-year Treasury notes, allowing the rate to fluctuate with the economy. With the recession still driving the Treasury decision, interest rates remain low. The proposal includes a cap on rates, ensuring that in profitable economic times, the student loan rates don’t soar.

But there is a key difference between the House plan and the president’s proposal.

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The House bill would recalculate the interest rates every year. Students could borrow at one rate, but then see their interest rates increase in future years on the same loan. Democrats say that system is comparable to variable-rate mortgages, which were blamed for helping sink the housing market in the last recession.

“A rate that continues to vary after the loan has already been taken out would create uncertainty and lessen transparency for students and their families who are making decisions about borrowing for college,” the administration said in a notice threatening the veto the bill.

Two different attempts to find compromise in the Senate have been defeated.

Senate Democrats would have frozen the rates for another two years and paid for the extension through closing tax loopholes the party has been pushing for anyway. The White House had encouraged passage of this proposal.

Tennessee Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander’s proposal most closely resembles the president’s, tying rates to Treasury notes and not adjusting the rates over the life of the loan. But it doesn’t include some of the president’s other proposals, including measures meant to help low-income students.

Alexander’s proposal was defeated by Senate Democrats.

Boehner also sought to put Republicans and Obama in the same camp against Senate Democrats.

“Frankly, there is no evidence that Democrats are making a sincere effort to get a bill passed in the Senate,” Boehner wrote. “With Republicans and you in general agreement on the policy, it is difficult to identify any motivation other than politics to explain why a solution has not already been signed into law.”

Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (R-Calif.) called her own press conference, standing in front of rows of college students and featuring campus leaders who explained what the difference in loan costs could mean for them individually.

Pelosi argued against the idea that House Republicans have actually proposed a compromise.

“Take action here, then you have some standing to criticize what others haven’t done,” Pelosi said when asked about Boehner’s criticism of Senate Democrats. “The action that we need to take here is not to have a bill that will more than double the student loans.”