The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the federal government will make a profit of $127 billion over the next ten years from lending to college students and their families. This article in the Huffington Post not only describes the extreme impact on borrowers and the economy as a whole, but outlines some refinancing proposals that have been made by Sen. Elizabeth Warren and others. PHENOM has proposed that the state could actually refinance some student loans at much lower interest rates. On April 14, PHENOM met with Congressman Jim McGovern and found him to be very supportive of finding creative, “out of the box” ways of fighting the student debt crisis. Federal student loan interest rates are rising, faster than predicted just a year ago. Beginning in 2015, the average undergraduate borrower will pay 5.72 percent to borrow from the federal government, the budget office estimates. Graduate borrowers are forecast to pay at least 7.27 percent, while parents will pay 8.27 percent.