The U.S. Senate ended more than a year of gridlock Wednesday when it voted to lower interest rates for students taking out loans this fall.

Interest rates for federal loans will sit at 3.9 percent this year, and can increase up to 8.25 percent for undergraduates and 10.5 percent for parents. The rates will be reset annually based on the market.

The bipartisan measure was approved 81-18, and will affect about 11 million borrowers, the Obama administration estimated.

The deal reverses the July 1 fee hike, which doubled interest rates to 6.8 percent after senators failed to reach a deal before the deadline. Some Democrats, including Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., opposed the bill and said ending the fixed-rates meant that students would be used “to generate profits for the government.”

The House passed a bill last month, which also tied rates to the U.S. Treasury borrowing rate but did not include the rate cap advocated for by Senate Democrats. Still, the White House and House Majority Leader Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio, praised the agreement as bipartisan.

“A victory indeed, and one that shows when we have common ground, we should seize it on behalf of the people we serve,” Boehner’s office wrote in a statement.

The student loans battle has stretched since last summer, when Congress reached a last-minute deal to avoid doubling the rates on subsidized and unsubsidized Stafford loans.

Obama, who said the law would save undergraduates an average of $1,500, also applauded the move as a “major victory.”