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The path to getting President Obama’s proposal to overhaul the federal student loan programs through Congress may have just gotten a whole lot more complicated.

As , Republican Scott Brown’s stunning victory in yesterday’s special election in Massachusetts for the Senate seat long held by the late Edward Kennedy puts an end to the Democrats’ short-lived filibuster-proof majority. This is certainly not a deal killer for the student loan reform legislation as Democratic Congressional leaders plan to push it through using a “fast-track” procedure known as , which requires only a simple majority to pass.

However, Brown’s long-shot win makes it much more likely that the legislation to end the Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) program will become even more entangled with the Democrats’ efforts to pass a health care overhaul bill. If this happens, there could be significant additional delays before the student loan measure is brought up for consideration in the Senate — delays that could potentially jeopardize this vital legislation.

That bill has already awaiting a resolution on the health care reform effort. That’s because Democratic leaders wanted to hold to move the health care bill just in case they couldn’t get the votes they needed to defeat a potential filibuster from Senate Republicans.

But this possibility appeared to be pretty remote, especially after the Senate Democrats rallied together to pass their version of the health care legislation on Christmas Eve. At long last, it seemed that the student loan measure would

The Democrats’ embarrassing loss in Massachusetts, however, changes the calculus. Assuming that Congressional leaders , they are likely to rely, in one way or another, on .

, the House of Representatives would simply approve the Senate version of the health care legislation and send it to President Obama for his signature. In return, the White House and Democratic leaders would promise to make desired changes to the bill on a separate reconciliation measure. This approach among House Democrats, and news reports on Wednesday indicated that .

Another possibility would be for Congressional leaders to dramatically scale back their efforts and try to get as much reform as possible done on a reconciliation bill. This , however, because many of the reforms that they have proposed would likely be ruled out of order under this type of parliamentary maneuver.

Regardless, if Democratic leaders choose either option, or any other that involves the budget reconciliation process, the President’s student loan overhaul plan will be affected. This may just mean a further delay, as negotiations over health care drag on even longer. But as yesterday, these delays do not come without consequences. Worse yet, the pairing of these two extremely controversial measures could derail them both.

It is increasingly looking like the Senate Democratic leaders’ decision to delay the student loan bill until health care reform was locked up has backfired. We sincerely hope that we are proven wrong.