The U.S. Senate failed to take action on a last-ditch effort to renew the federal Perkins Loan program, letting the program lapse.

Both houses of Congress needed to pass legislation renewing the program by Sept. 30, the last day of the 2015 fiscal year, and the House of Representatives did so on Tuesday.

But at the urging of Senator Lamar Alexander, the Republican who has argued for the program's elimination as part of an effort to simplify and streamline the federal government’s student loan programs, the Senate did not follow suit.