"Congress and the U.S. Education Department have gotten generally positive reviews for their collective response to the threat last spring that turmoil in the U.S. financial credit markets would greatly restrict students' access to federal student loans," Inside Higher Ed reports. "As one student aid cycle concludes, though, another is just beginning. And with financial aid officials and lenders arguing that students beginning their planning for the 2009-10 academic year will face continuing uncertainty about the availability of federal guaranteed loans, Democratic and Republican leaders in the House of Representatives have agreed to extend for a year the 'temporary' law they approved last spring. Spokeswomen for Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.) and Rep. Howard P. (Buck) McKeon (R-Calif.), the chairman and senior Republican, respectively, on the House Education and Labor Committee, confirmed that the full House would take up the one-year extension as soon as today under legislative procedures, known as 'suspension of the rules,' that are generally reserved for noncontroversial matters."