KAI RYSSDAL: With more students borrowing more money to pay higher tuition bills, student loans have become an $85 billion industry in this country. And where there's that much money on the line, there's always the opportunity for problems.

CIT Group announced today the top three officials at its Student Loan Xpress subsidiary are going to be taking some time off — with pay. New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo is looking into possible kickbacks. He's investigating financial ties between lenders and aid officials at several universities, as well as at the U.S. Department of Education. He's already issued a basketful of subpoenas, to CIT Group and others. And Congress is promising it's own investigation.

JEFF BIRNBAUM: Of all the industries under attack on Capitol Hill — and there are plenty of them — the business of providing student loans is perhaps the most endangered.

The private student loan industry and its leading company, Sallie Mae, are battling against congressional Democrats and President Bush — both of whom would like to pare back the lenders' sizable federal benefits.

The private student loan industry in general, and Sallie Mae in particular, has never been popular with Democrats. Democratic policymakers see the billion-dollar subsidies that go to student lenders as a terrible waste. They've said for years that they'd prefer to take for-profit companies out of the market and encourage student lending directly from Uncle Sam.

But this year, in a surprise, Bush broke with the GOP's unwavering support of private lending to students and sided with the Democrats.

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