WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate is steaming toward a showdown on a Democratic proposal to keep student loan interest rates from doubling for 7.4 million students. In a measure of how the upcoming election is driving work in Congress these days, it’s a vote Democrats won’t terribly mind losing — which is probably what will happen.

The Senate planned a roll call on the plan today, which would extend today’s 3.4 percent interest rates on subsidized Stafford loans for another year. Without congressional action, those rates will double July 1.

Republicans say they favor freezing student loan interest rates but oppose how Democrats would finance the $6 billion bill: by raising Social Security and Medicare payroll taxes on high-earning stock holders of some privately owned corporations.