Obama to offer student loan relief

WASHINGTON - The White House says President Barack Obama plans to offer millions of student loan borrowers the ability to lower their payments and consolidate their loans.

Obama on Wednesday will use his executive authority to accelerate a measure passed by Congress that reduces the repayment cap on student loans from 15 percent of discretionary income to 10 percent. The White House wants it to go into effect in 2012, instead of 2014. About 1.6 million borrowers could be affected.

Also, the 5.8 million borrowers who have loans from both the Family Education Loan Program and a direct loan from the government would be able to consolidate them into one loan. The consolidated loan would be up to a half percentage point less.