The Income-Dependent Education Assistance Act will help students get a better financial aid package while saving the government money, a congressman said.

The IDEA bill proposed by Rep. Tom Petri is designed to help students that need money for school at the amount they need it, Congressman Petri’s Administrative Assistant Joe Slater said.

The IDEA bill is also a better package for students than the Stafford loan because the student pays according to income instead of a set amount, he added.

According to Petri, his proposal will also help the government save money.

Slater said,”It eliminates defaults on loans because the loans are scheduled based on income and if the government borrows money they have a lower interest rate charged to them.”

Rep. Patrick Welch disagrees, indicating that the federal government will still lose money because students who still cannot pay after 25 years will default.

The loan is supposed to be more efficient because the students who have higher incomes are expected to pay higher payments at a faster rate.

“It sounds like a reasonable approach because it differentiates between professions. Obviously the medical field can pay a loan back faster than opposed to an elementary teacher,” Welch said.

The interest rates that a student is expected to pay also remain a constant rate of approximately 10 percent as opposed to the Stafford program.

However, with the proposal, interest payments would start adding to the loan right after the loan is taken out, compared to the Stafford program where the government pays the interest while the student attends school.

“The loan is not based on a family need analysis and it allows undergrads to borrow up to $6,500 per year and graduate students $11,000 per year. All students are eligible,” said Slater.

According to Slater, the bill is under active consideration and has 60 cosponsors in the U.S. House of Representatives, including the federal education chairman. More people will also cosponsor the bill if the federal treasury says they can fund it, said Slater.