Washington — By a vote of 233 to 196, the U.S. House of Representatives passed its budget blueprint tonight. The Senate was expected to pass its version of the bill sometime after midnight.

After both are approved, the competing measures will next head to a conference committee, where members of the two chambers will craft a compromise. The outcome of those negotiations could determine the future of the student-loan industry.

The House’s bill instructs the Committee on Education and Labor to wring $1-billion from programs under its jurisdiction through a process known as “budget reconciliation.” The committee is expected to seek those changes through the elimination of the bank-based federal-student-loan program.

Senators did not include reconciliation instructions to their chamber’s education committee in their bill. The Senate approved an amendment (as part of a “manager’s amendment”) that expresses support for “a competitive student-loan program that provides students and institutions of higher education with a comprehensive choice of loan products and services.”

While the amendment, which was sponsored by Sen. Lamar Alexander, a Republican of Tennessee, is nonbinding and mostly symbolic, lenders see it as a good sign.

If Congress considers the president’s plan through the reconciliation process, it will have a much better chance of becoming law. That’s because reconciliation bills are filibuster-proof, and need only 51 votes to pass. That means as many as seven Democrats could vote against the legislation, and it could still become law. —Kelly Field