Congress approved a $20.2 billion boost in financial aid for college students yesterday, a package that backers said would be the single largest increase in federal tuition funding since World War II.

The bill, which President Bush is expected to sign, raises the maximum Pell grant for low-income students from $4,050 to $5,400, and temporarily slashes interest rates on student loans by half.

It also establishes debt-forgiveness programs for graduates who enter certain poorly paid fields such as law enforcement, firefighting, and teaching. According to the Department of Education, the average student now graduates with $19,000 in debt.

The new aid would be funded by a massive cut in subsidies to the scandal-plagued private student loan industry. Lenders said the cutbacks would cause some banks to stop offering student loans.

The president had threatened to veto an earlier version, but the White House indicated Thursday that Bush would sign the legislation...

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Still, there was criticism from some Democrats that the legislation did not go far enough. Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards released a statement calling for an end to subsidies to private lenders and said that all loans should be handled directly through the Department of Education.

Congressional Republicans expressed frustration with President Bush for endorsing the measure. Representative Howard P. McKeon of California, the ranking Republican on the House Education Committee, said the bill amounted to an "entitlement program spending spree."

Michael Dannenberg, director of the Education Policy Program at the New America Foundation, a think tank in Washington, said that by proposing his own cuts in lender subsidies in his February budget, Bush had undercut members of Congress in his own party.

"President Bush triangulated conservative Republicans. He made common cause with the Democratic majority and proposed his own lender subsidy reduction as part of his budget," Dannenberg said. When the lending scandal exploded, he said, "congressional inaction became publicly unacceptable..."

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