Democrats in Congress are pushing to overhaul the nation’s student loan system with legislation that would cut federal subsidies to lending companies by as much as $19 billion, channel most of those savings to student aid and ease repayment rules for borrowers, the Washington Post reported today. The Senate education committee overwhelmingly approved its version of the legislation yesterday, one week after the House education panel took similar action. Senior Democrats predicted that the bills would come to a vote by the end of next month and would be reconciled without significant difficulty. “This legislation will help reverse the crisis in college affordability,” said Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), chairman of the education committee. “It will restore balance to our broken student loan system by reducing unnecessary lender subsidies.”