The Federal Direct Student Loan Program offers loans to students and their parents to help pay for postsecondary education. Under current law, about $1.4 trillion in new direct loans will be made to students between 2013 and 2023, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projects. Analysts and policymakers have raised concerns about various features of the program, including a jump in the interest rate on what are known as subsidized loans--which account for about one-quarter of all new student loans--that is scheduled to occur on July 1, 2013. This report provides information about the direct student loan program and its effects on the federal budget under current law. It also presents an analysis of the expected budgetary effects of options for changing the terms on new subsidized student loans and of options for changing the overall approach to setting interest rates on all new direct student loans.