Federal loan re-consolidation?

[CluelessCredit]

It is possible that there is coming legislation that will change the interest rate on federal loans, dropping it as low as 3.86% on undergrad loans and something like 6.41% for grad loans.

From my research on the net it is only possible to re-consolidate an already consolidated federal loan if I am adding a new federal loan to the consolidation.  The only exception being for direct loan (some special federal program) consolidations as I understand it.

My current federal loan consolidation is 6.38% for federal undergrad loans (serviced by Sallie Mae).  Within that consolidation are two loans; both of which would be subject to the aforementioned interest rate drop.  I am taking grad courses (company pays for them), but I'd be willing to take out a small loan I could instantly pay back for a chance to re-consolidate.

So my questions:

1) Is it true that the only way to re-consolidate federal student loans is to add another federal loan?

2) If I tried this would the loans in my current consolidation actually be subject to the new national interest rate?

If this were possible it would shave a great deal of time off my debt snowball.  Thanks for any information!  Oh and my source for possible interest rate drop is here.

[SCF]

1) Yes, generally you do have to add a new federal loan in to consolidate loans that have already been consolidated, with the exception that you mentioned.

2) Currently, consolidating your loans does not change their interest rate.  If you have loans with different rates in the consolidation, your new interest rate is the weighted average of those rates.  It seems like this legislation, if it passes, would change that for some borrowers.  When/if the law passes, the DoE will release guidelines on who qualfiies and instructions on how to apply.  It's really hard to tell if this will pass, and if it does, what type of restrictions might exist on it.

[CluelessCredit]

Thanks for the information!