U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wisconsin, and other Senate Democrats are urging Republicans to extend a federal student loan program, which is on the brink of ending forever.

Baldwin, along with Sen. Patty Murray, D-Washington and Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pennsylvania, spoke during a conference call Tuesday, defending the Federal Perkins Loan Program, which offers low-interest loans for college students with exceptional financial need.

The program is set to expire Oct. 1 if the Senate does not act, Baldwin said.

“This critical program needs to be reauthorized and extended because if we don’t act by the end of the day tomorrow, it will lapse,” Baldwin said. “That is a tragedy for so many students who are reliant on Perkins loans.”

Congress is currently in the midst of rewriting the Higher Education Act, Baldwin said, which is why she wants to extend the Perkins Loan Program — to discuss the program’s future within an adequate amount of time, not just a mere couple of days.

U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Wisconsin, helped co-sponsor a bill insisting on extending the program for one year, which passed in a voice vote in the House of Representatives Monday, Casey said.

Baldwin, Murray and Casey introduced a similar resolution in the Senate to extend Perkins loans for another year. The resolution has bipartisan support, Baldwin said, with four Republican co-sponsors out of 25.

“We have, I believe, a very small number of people who would want to see the Perkins Loan program end,” Baldwin said.

But in the Senate, Baldwin said, even one person’s opinion matters. Sen. Lamal Alexander, R-Tennessee, has expressed opposition to Perkins loans, she said.

Baldwin said Perkins loans currently provide more than 20,000 low-income Wisconsin students with more than $41 million in aid. Perkins loans work as a revolving fund, she said, meaning when students pay back their loans, those funds get lent back out for other students in need.

Susan Fischer, director of University of Wisconsin Office of Financial Aid, said approximately 4,500 students receive Perkins loans at UW. If the Perkins Loans program dies Thursday, she said, students who currently receive the loans will continue to until the end of next semester, but no incoming students after that will receive them.

Fischer said Perkins loans are not used at all schools throughout the country, but the program spends $10 million to $12 million per year at UW.

“We think it’s an excellent program,” Fischer said. “[We receive] no new money from the [federal government]. It’s all revolving. It’s students who used to have it and pay it back. It’s all coming back around for us to give to other students.”

The Perkins Loan program was the first federal loan program for low-income students in the U.S. and began in 1958 under the National Defense Student Loan program, according to FinAid. 

Baldwin said she expects the Senate to discuss the Perkins Loan program’s fate in great detail over the next couple days.

Teymour Tomsyck contributed to reporting.