As part of a broad economic plan released today, John McCain urged officials at the U.S. Department of Education to work with governors to “make sure that each state’s guarantee agency has the means and manpower to meet its obligation as a lender of last resort for student loans” as “students face the possibility that the credit crunch will disrupt loans for the fall semester.”

In his prepared remarks today, Mr. McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee for president, said that “in the years ahead, these young Americans will be needed to sustain America’s primacy in the global marketplace. And they should not be denied an education because the recklessness of others has made credit too hard to obtain.”

The Education Department and Congress already have been acting to try to put in place safeguards in case the credit crisis does end up making it difficult for some students to take out loans. In an interview with The Chronicle on Friday, Education Secretary Margaret Spellings — who met with loan-industry officials last week — said the Bush administration remains focused on preparing “lender of last resort” procedures in the event that too many private lenders stop offering federally guaranteed student loans.

In another portion of his economic plan, Mr. McCain promised to rein in government spending by vetoing every spending bill that contains “pork,” noncompetitive grants that members allocate to specific colleges or other entities, and “make their authors famous.” He said he would seek the authority to veto line items of bills as a way to help eliminate those earmarks from federal appropriations legislation.