House of Representatives Passes Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act), Sending Measure to President’s Desk Note: This LAW Alert includes information as of March 27, 2020. The President is expected to sign bill into law. The House of Representatives passed the bipartisan CARES Act today by a voice vote. The House vote comes after the Senate passed the bill on March 25. The bill now goes to President Trump, who is expected to sign it into law. Below are highlights of the bill, pertaining to higher education: - Establishes an Education Stabilization Fund and appropriates $30.75 billion to prevent, prepare for, and respond to coronavirus, domestically or internationally.
- Allocates approximately $14 billion for higher education emergency relief.
- Approximately $12.5 billion would be distributed to all colleges and universities using a formula based on 75% of their Pell full-time equivalency (FTE) of students and 25% of non-Pell FTE.
- Approximately $1 billion would be set aside for
Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) & minority serving institutions (MSIs).
- Approximately $349 million would be set aside for the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE).
- Institutions would be able to use these funds to cover any costs associated with campus closures or significant changes to the delivery of instruction due to the coronavirus.
- At least 50% of funds would be required to provide emergency grants to students for expenses directly related to coronavirus and the disruption of campus operations.
- Provides approximately $3 billion for states to use based on the needs of elementary
and secondary schools, as well as institutions of higher education.
- Establishes a maintenance of effort (MOE) requirement that states receiving this aid maintain their own educational funding this year and next year at least at the average level of the three preceding years. However, the Secretary of Education can waive this requirement.
Other proposed provisions in the bill include: - Waiving the institutional matching requirement for campus-based aid programs.
- Allowing institutions to award additional supplemental education opportunity grant (SEOG)
funds to students impacted by COVID-19.
- Allowing institutions to issue work-study payments to student who are unable to work due to work-place closures.
- Subsidized usage limits apply (SULA), satisfactory academic progress (SAP), and lifetime Pell eligibility calculations will not count terms impacted by COVID-19 for students.
- Waiving the Return of Title IV (R2T4) funds requirement for institutions and students as it relates to students who dropped out of school as a result of COVID-19.
- Allowing the Secretary of Education to waive many federal requirements under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, and the Higher Education Act.
- A six-month moratorium on federal Direct Loan payments, interest accrual, and collections.
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