Rep. Lois Capps, D-Santa Barbara, voted with her colleagues Thursday to make the single largest investment in financial aid to help students and families pay for college — and at no new cost to taxpayers.

Passed by a 253-170 vote, the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act (House Resolution 3221) would expand access to an affordable college education to more U.S. students, transform early-education opportunities and build a world-class community college system while saving taxpayers $87 billion.

“Ensuring that all Americans have the financial resources to go to college and get the skills and job training necessary to get a good paying job is a smart investment for our country,” Capps said. “This is an important step in rebuilding our economy and ensuring that our work force remains the most highly skilled, cutting-edge and effective in the world. I’m also pleased that while making these important investments in our country’s future we’ve also been good stewards of the taxpayers’ money, saving an estimated $87 billion through reforms to the student-lending program that eliminate wasteful spending.”

The bill is a major step forward in President Barack Obama’s initiative to make sure America leads the world in college graduates by 2020. SAFRA would reform the system of federal student loans to save taxpayers $87 billion and would direct $10 billion of those savings back to the U.S. Treasury to reduce entitlement spending.

SAFRA would change the way the student loan system functions by originating new loans through the government’s Direct Loan program, but would maintain competition among private lenders and nonprofits to provide top-notch customer service for student borrowers. The change would make college loans more reliable for students and families — and ensure that loans operate in the best interests of borrowers by reducing many potential conflicts of interest.

“For years, private lenders had carte blanche to issue student loans and, left unchecked, they wasted taxpayer dollars and failed to provide a fair deal to students and their families,” Capps said. “This commonsense reform is long overdue, and I’m proud to join President Obama and my Democratic colleagues in standing up for the American taxpayer by eliminating billions in waste and dramatically expanding access to essential education and job training opportunities.”

This bill also would significantly increase government grant and loan assistance for college tuition payments. Pell Grants, already distributed to more than 7 million students, would increase to $6,900 by 2019 from $5,350 today and be made more widely available. In the 23rd District, more than 6,800 additional students are estimated to receive Pell Grants.

SAFRA also would keep interest rates low on government-subsidized loans, make substantial investments in early-childhood education, expand the Perkins loan program to every U.S. college and simplify the process of applying for student financial aid.

— Emily Kryder is the communications director for Rep. Lois Capps, D-Santa Barbara.