By Niels Lesniewski and JM Rieger

As the Senate prepares to move forward with legislation addressing the VA scandal, GOP leaders pushed back on the student loan measure championed by Democrats and led by Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell dissed the measure, which would allow student loans to be refinanced at lower current rates with an offsetting millionaire minimum tax. Instead, he said, the Senate should be acting on the bill to address the issues at the Department of Veterans Affairs. “We have a bipartisan veterans bill negotiated the way we used to do business in the Senate, with members of both parties, ready to go,” the Kentucky Republican said. “It was introduced yesterday. So, I hope we’ll not get onto a bill going nowhere and immediately turn to the veterans bipartisan bill and see if we can address that in a bipartisan way very quickly. Maybe even finish it this week.”