Kansas City, Mo. ? College students, university officials and two Democratic congressmen gathered Tuesday at the University of Missouri-Kansas City to rail against sweeping proposals that would chop federal student loan programs by billions of dollars.

“If there is a time in the history of America where we can’t afford to cut student aid, that would be now,” said Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, D-Mo., who organized the panel with Rep. Dennis Moore, D-Kan. “This will put college out of reach for the people who need it most.”

The proposed reforms, which the House and Senate voted in as part of deficit-reduction measures earlier this month, could amount to the largest cuts to federal student loan programs in the country’s history. Opponents say the cuts would make the average student borrower repay an additional $5,800 on those loans.

The reforms won’t become law until a congressional committee can match the House’s proposal, which calls for $14.3 billion in cuts, with the Senate’s bill, which would slash loan programs by $9 billion. Students across the country are using that policy window to lobby their representatives as Democratic legislators speak out against the plan.

GOP supporters of both bills, however, say the reforms will do away with costly government subsidies to the private companies that loan students money, making federal loan programs leaner so they can expand lending in the future.

“The bill would lower fees and increase loan limits for students,” said Alexa Marrero, spokeswoman for the House Education and the Workforce Committee. “Right now you’ve got students who are paying differing amounts of fees on their loans, and we want to make sure we have a fair and consistent policy.”

Currently, students pay different fees to take out federal loans, and can be responsible for additional insurance fees. The Republican plan would phase out origination fees, create a mandatory 1 percent insurance fee to guarantee new loans, and would institute a new 1 percent consolidation fee charged to students who bundle together the loans they take out throughout their college career.

Borrowing federal money to attend college is commonplace in Missouri and Kansas, where students owe more than $252 million and $114 million in federal loans, respectively. But as state subsidies to public universities fall, the cost of higher education is rising, said Missouri-Kansas City Interim Chancellor Steve Lehmkuhle.

Analysts agree that some reforms are needed to accommodate the soaring public cost of financing higher education for a growing population. According to the College Board, the nonprofit organization that administers the SAT college entrance test, in 1970 only 15 percent of Americans over age 25 had earned a bachelor’s degree. By last year, that figure had risen to 28 percent.

“The cuts are not a seismic shift, but I had hoped that when Congress cut student loans they would reinvest the money into grants,” said Sandy Baum, senior analyst at the College Board. “Students have been able to lock in very low interest rates lately for loans, and what this will mean is that when it comes time to pay back loans, it will be somewhat more expensive.”