video transcript

Today's Daily Digit is 6.8 percent. Interest rates on new federal student loans have just doubled to 6.8 percent. There is hope though. Lawmakers could take up the issue when they return from a holiday break on July 10th. One idea being bounced around is to retroactively extend lower interest rates for a year - buying time for lawmakers to come up with a longer-term plan. $986 billion dollars - that's how much U.S. student debt was outstanding as of the first quarter of the year, according to the New York Federal Reserve and Equifax. According to that data, student loans are the second largest household debt - second only to home loans.