Sallie Mae, the nation's largest student lender, spent more than $1.4 million in the first quarter to lobby on efforts to shore up the troubled student loan market and other legislation affecting the industry.
The Reston, Va.-based company, formally SLM Corp., lobbied on education spending, banking legislation and numerous student lending bills, according to an April 21 filing with the House clerk's office.
President Bush in May signed a bill giving the Education Department the authority to buy up loans from student lenders to ensure they have access to capital and can remain in the business.
Congress sets the interest rates borrowers pay and the subsidy levels lenders receive under the federal student loan program. Lawmakers last year cut about $20 billion in federal subsidies to lenders to pay for increases in student aid.
That reduction cut into lenders' profit margins as did the credit crunch in the financial markets, which has made it expensive for lenders to raise the capital they need to offer student loans.
Besides lawmakers, Sallie Mae lobbied the White House budget office, Congressional Budget Office, Education Department, Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve in the first three months of the year.
Among those registered to lobby on behalf of Sallie Mae were DeWayne Davis, a former senior legislative assistant for Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., and Mark Schuermann, formerly chief of staff for Rep. Harold Ford., D-Tenn.
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