Washington — As the exodus of lenders from the student-loan program continues, Rep. George Miller of California, the Democratic chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives education committee, has introduced a bill designed to reduce borrowers’ dependence on private loans and to make it easier for colleges to find lenders for their students if a credit crisis occurs.

The committee will consider the bill on Wednesday. The measure, which is similar to legislation introduced last week by Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, a Democrat of Massachusetts, would raise loan limits on federal loans by $2,000 a year for all students while increasing aggregate loan limits to $31,000 for undergraduates who are dependents of their parents and to $57,500 for independent students.

The bill would also make it easier for parents who are delinquent on their mortgages to receive PLUS loans and allow all parent borrowers to defer repayment until six months after their children graduate.

The bill aims to ease the process of applying for a loan under the federal government’s “lender of last resort” program, which would use guarantee agencies to provide loans if they become widely unavailable. Under current law, students seeking such loans would have to petition the Education Department directly and prove that they had been denied a loan by at least two lenders. Under Mr. Miller’s bill, the department could designate lenders of last resort on a collegewide, not a student-by-student, basis.

In addition, the bill would allow the department to purchase loans from lenders in the secondary market, providing them with fresh capital to stay in business.

Mr. Kennedy’s bill would increase the loan limits by less, but it would also increase the maximum Pell Grant for the neediest students by up to $750. —Kelly Field