Washington — The U.S. Senate last night gave final approval to a budget blueprint that sets the stage for an overhaul of student lending.

The plan, which Congressional appropriators will use as a guide when they draw up spending bills for the coming fiscal year, instructs the committees that oversee education to shave $1-billion from programs under their jurisdiction through a process known as budget reconciliation. Lawmakers are likely to seek those savings through major changes in the bank-based guaranteed-loan system, perhaps even eliminating it altogether, as President Obama has proposed.

The inclusion of reconciliation instructions in the spending plan, which follows similar action on Wednesday in the House of Representatives, is a win for the Obama administration because reconciliation bills, unlike normal bills, are filibuster-proof in the Senate. That means the president’s proposal could pass with only 51 votes, nine fewer than it takes to overcome a filibuster.

However, the plan also makes clear that many lawmakers remain wary of efforts to end guaranteed lending. In a nod to those lawmakers, Democrats included “sense of Congress” language specifying that any changes in the student-loan programs “should include some future role for the currently involved private and nonprofit entities.” The nonbinding language also alludes to job losses that could occur if bank-based lending were abolished.

The plan gives the education committees until October 15 to identify the $1-billion in required savings.

Lenders are urging Congress to hold hearings to consider other ways of remaking the student-loan system. “Now is the time for Congress and the administration to begin examining various options that fully leverage the capacity, experience, and dedication that nonfederal actors — including nonprofit and state-based agencies — bring to the table,” said Peter Warren, president of the Education Finance Council, which represents nonprofit lenders, in a statement.

Student groups, meanwhile, are celebrating passage of the spending plan. In recent weeks, they have sent more than 4,000 letters and made roughly 1,000 phone calls urging lawmakers to support the president’s proposal to end guaranteed lending and use the savings to make Pell Grants an entitlement.

“We are pleased to see Congress acting in the best interest of young people in America after playing such a huge role in the 2008 presidential election,” said Carmen Berkley, president of the United States Student Association, in a written statement.

Congress had been rushing to complete work on the spending plan by Wednesday, to deliver one last legislative victory to the president during his first 100 days in office. —Kelly Field