The House of Representatives voted Thursday to allow student loan interest rates to float with the free market, as lawmakers stare down a July 1 deadline when rates would double for undergraduates.

The Republican-backed measure, HR 1911, which passed mostly along party lines, would reset the rates for both subsidized and unsubsidized Stafford loans each year. The Congressional Budget Office projected rates would rise from their current 3.4 percent to 5 percent in 2014 and 7.7 percent in 2023.

“What the House is doing today is a responsible way to deal honestly with the issue of student loans,” Boehner said, according to news reports.

The bill is looking to stave off a doubling of rates for new subsidized Stafford loans later this summer if Congress does not act – an option neither party favors.

However, the measure now faces an unwelcoming Senate vote and a potential veto from President Barack Obama – likely pushing the student loan fight into the summer. Democrats in the Senate, who say the House measure creates too much unpredictability for interest rates, want to extend the current rate to give them more time to create a new formula.

The debate has an impact on a large swath of GW students, as about 4,700 undergraduates received more than $30 million in funding from subsidized Stafford loans last year. Borrowers’ monthly payments, however, would only increase slightly, if rates double to 6.8 percent this summer.

The Class of 2012 borrowed an average of $33,399 to earn their diplomas – nearly $9,000 more than 2011’s national average.