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The Senate is planning to vote Wednesday on a plan to bring interest rates on subsidized federal student loans back down to 3.4 percent for one more year. The rate doubled on July 1 when the chamber failed to agree on a plan.

While the Senate prepares to take the issue back up, college students are left staring at several competing proposals.

This fight has been all about what's best for those students. To make that point, House Republicans recently gathered more than 100 of them to sweat and squint under the summer sun for a press conference on the Capitol steps. The guys were wrapped in wool suits and ties — most of them congressional interns plucked from offices just that afternoon.

One of them was Wes Hodgin, who said he kept thinking one thing while he waited 45 minutes for House leaders to arrive: Do not faint.

"I'm just going to try to stand out here, sweat all I can, and just not faint today," he said.

Hodgin's going to be a junior at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill this fall. He has student loans, but not the subsidized kind, so the rate doubling on July 1 technically didn't affect him.

Nevertheless, House Republicans had one central message: The Senate still hasn't passed a student loan plan.

"They've been more involved in internal bickering rather than actually addressing the issue," said Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, chairwoman of the House Republican Conference. "And the students that are surrounded with us today — they're all suffering because of it."

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In the wee hours of Sunday, the U.S. Embassy in Berlin became the unwitting host of a light show expressing opposition the U.S. surveillance programs.

"The United Stasi of America," was splashed on a wall at the embassy around 1 a.m., the work of German guerrilla artists.

The Europeans in general have been extremely critical of the surveillance programs. And the Germans have been particularly vocal given the history of the Nazis and the Stasi, the secret police during the communist era in East Germany.

The light projection also included the likeness of Kim Dotcom, also known as Kim Schmitz, the Internet entrepreneur who founded Megaupload and its successor, Mega.

However, the actual projection was carried out by Oliver Bienkowski, and is captured here in this YouTube video.

After the Federal Open Market Committee meeting in June, the financial markets "freaked out," according to David Wessel, economics editor of The Wall Street Journal.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke sent a shockwave through the markets when suggested the Fed's stimulus could end.

David tells Morning Edition host Renee Montagne "Bernanke tried to explain that if, and only if, the economy kept improving, the Fed would begin later this year to reduce the amount of money it's pumping into the economy later this year."

The markets interpreted Bernanke's comments to mean interest rates would increase and that prompted a sell-off in bonds and stocks.

The Fed is buying $85 billion in bonds a month to help keep borrowing low. That economic move has encouraged borrowing and spending.

Dennis Lockhart, president of the Atlanta Fed bank, told an audience in Marietta, Ga., in June, that what the Fed was trying to do for the economy was similar to how a smoker who wants to quit begins using a nicotine patch.

The markets, however, took it to mean the Fed was going to quit "cold turkey," Lockhart said.

"It took speeches by half a dozen other Fed officials and about a dozen other metaphors to clarify Bernanke's clarification," David tells Renee.

Stocks have largely recovered since Bernanke made his stimulus comments, but there has been a surge in long-term interest rates.

The benchmark, 10-year Treasury rate "has gone from below 1.7 percent at the beginning of May to nearly 2.7 percent this week," David says.

In the last Freddie Mac survey, mortgage rates have gone from about 3.4 percent to 4.3 percent.

"The market is pushing up interest rates because the incoming news on the U.S. economy has been encouraging, and in part because markets are anticipating the day when the Federal Reserve won't be trying so hard to keep rates down," David adds.

There could be further clarification of the Fed's plans at 2 p.m. today with the release of the minutes from the June meeting.

And there's always the chance the markets could get agitated again when Bernanke speaks about two hours later. He is expected to deliver remarks on the central bank's track record throughout its 100 year history at a conference in Cambridge, Mass.

After the Federal Open Market Committee meeting in June, the financial markets "freaked out," according to David Wessel, economics editor of The Wall Street Journal.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke sent a shockwave through the markets when suggested the Fed's stimulus could end.

David tells Morning Edition host Renee Montagne "Bernanke tried to explain that if, and only if, the economy kept improving, the Fed would begin later this year to reduce the amount of money it's pumping into the economy later this year."

The markets interpreted Bernanke's comments to mean interest rates would increase and that prompted a sell-off in bonds and stocks.

The Fed is buying $85 billion in bonds a month to help keep borrowing low. That economic move has encouraged borrowing and spending.

Dennis Lockhart, president of the Atlanta Fed bank, told an audience in Marietta, Ga., in June, that what the Fed was trying to do for the economy was similar to how a smoker who wants to quit begins using a nicotine patch.

The markets, however, took it to mean the Fed was going to quit "cold turkey," Lockhart said.

"It took speeches by half a dozen other Fed officials and about a dozen other metaphors to clarify Bernanke's clarification," David tells Renee.

Stocks have largely recovered since Bernanke made his stimulus comments, but there has been a surge in long-term interest rates.

The benchmark, 10-year Treasury rate "has gone from below 1.7 percent at the beginning of May to nearly 2.7 percent this week," David says.

In the last Freddie Mac survey, mortgage rates have gone from about 3.4 percent to 4.3 percent.

"The market is pushing up interest rates because the incoming news on the U.S. economy has been encouraging, and in part because markets are anticipating the day when the Federal Reserve won't be trying so hard to keep rates down," David adds.

There could be further clarification of the Fed's plans at 2 p.m. today with the release of the minutes from the June meeting.

And there's always the chance the markets could get agitated again when Bernanke speaks about two hours later. He is expected to deliver remarks on the central bank's track record throughout its 100 year history at a conference in Cambridge, Mass.