[CED/CD/EAT] Fwd: Positive news to share from Congress

Thu Mar 26 09:12:10 MST 2020

FYI....

Get Outlook for iOS<https://aka.ms/o0ukef>
________________________________
From: Burgess, Shane C - (shaneburgess) <sburgess at cals.arizona.edu>
Sent: Thursday, March 26, 2020 9:10:06 AM
To: Chorover, Jon - (chorover) <chorover at arizona.edu>; Farrell-Poe, Kathryn L - (kittfp) <kittfp at arizona.edu>; Going, Scott B - (going) <going at arizona.edu>; Jenks, Matthew - (jenksm) <jenksm at arizona.edu>; Rutledge, Bethany S - (rutledge) <rutledge at cals.arizona.edu>; Scaramella, Laura V - (scaramella) <scaramella at arizona.edu>; Koprowski, John L - (5quirre1) <5quirre1 at ag.arizona.edu>; Stock, S. Patricia - (spstock) <spstock at arizona.edu>; Tabashnik, Bruce E - (tabashnb) <BruceT at cals.arizona.edu>; Thompson, Gary D - (gdthomps) <GaryT at ag.arizona.edu>; Torres, Robert M - (rtorres1) <rtorres1 at arizona.edu>; Walworth, Jim - (jlw1) <Walworth at ag.arizona.edu>; Antin, Parker B - (pba) <pba at arizona.edu>; Davis, James M - (jdavis1) <JDavis at ag.arizona.edu>; Mclain, Jean - (mclainj) <mclainj at arizona.edu>; Silvertooth, Jeffrey C - (silverto) <Silver at ag.arizona.edu>; Limesand, Kirsten H - (limesank) <limesank at arizona.edu>; Mcclaran, Mitchel P - (mcclaran) <mcclaran at arizona.edu>; Rahr, Matt - (rahr) <rahr at ag.arizona.edu>; Ratje, Jeffrey M - (jmratje) <jmratje at arizona.edu>; Rutherford, Janis KM - (jmathias) <jmathias at arizona.edu>; Staten, Michael E - (statenm) <statenm at arizona.edu>
Subject: Positive news to share from Congress

Everyone, please see attached and below.

Senate

The Senate is expected to pass its nearly $2-trillion Phase 3 stimulus bill this evening. $14.25 billion is included for higher education emergency relief, with the potential for more funds at the discretion of governors via a $3 billion emergency support grant to be divided out among all 50 states. Further details of the education provision are included below. A full title-by-title summary is attached where you can see the funding provided to other federal agencies.

Important to note: Institutions of higher education shall use no less than 50 percent of such funds (however much is appropriated to UA) to provide emergency financial aid grants to students for expenses related to the disruption of campus operations due to coronavirus (including eligible expenses under a student’s cost of attendance,  such as food, housing, course materials, technology, health care, and child care)

Additionally, a tax-related of provision of note allows employers and self-employed individuals to defer payment of the employer share of the Social Security tax they otherwise are responsible for paying to the federal government with respect to their employees. More details below

House

The House is adjourned until 11:00am tomorrow. House leadership has committed to give Members 24-hour notice to return to Washington and delay action should the House take up the Senate bill.

AZ Advocacy

UA, ASU, and NAU worked together on a letter signed by the Arizona delegation in the House to leadership urging them to include provisions to alleviate the acute economic hardship to institutions in Phase 3 legislation. Sens. Sinema and McSally sent a similar letter to Senate leadership.

Please let us know if you have any questions.

Education

Department of Education – The bill includes $30.750 billion for an Education Stabilization Fund for states, school districts and institutions of higher education for costs related to coronavirus:

  *   For elementary and secondary education, $13.5 billion is available for formula-grants to States, which will then distribute 90 percent of funds to local educational agencies to use for coronavirus-response activities
  *   Governors in each state will receive a share of $3 billion to allocate at their discretion for emergency support grants to local educational agencies that the State educational agency deems have been most significantly impacted by coronavirus.  These funds will support the ability of such local educational agencies to continue to provide educational services to their students and to support the on-going operations of the local educational agency; and provide emergency support through grants to institutions of higher education serving students within the State.

  *   $14.250 billion will be available for higher education emergency relief for institutions of higher education to prevent, prepare for, and respond to coronavirus.  Funds may be used to defray expenses for institutions of higher education, such as lost revenue, technology costs associated with a transition to distance education, and grants to students for food, housing, course materials, technology, health care, and child care.

Provisions included in the Amendment in the Nature of a Substitute include the following:

Subtitle B—Education Provisions

  *   Waives the institutional matching requirement for campus-based aid programs. Allows institutions to transfer unused work-study funds to be used for supplemental grants.
  *   Allows institutions to award additional SEOG funds to students impacted by COVID-19.
  *   Allows institutions to issue work-study payments to students who are unable to work due to work-place closures as a lump sum or in payments similar to paychecks.
  *   For students who dropped out of school as a result of COVID -19 excludes the term from counting toward lifetime subsidized loan eligibility.
  *   For students who dropped out of school as a result of COVID -19 excludes the term from counting toward lifetime Pell eligibility.
  *   For students who dropped out of school as a result of COVID -19, the student is not required to return Pell grants or federal student loans to the Secretary. Waives the requirement that institutions calculate the amount of grant or loan assistance that the institution must return to the Secretary in the case of students who dropped out of school as a result of COVID-19.
  *    For students who dropped out of school as a result of COVID -19, the student’s grades do not effect a student’s federal academic requirements to continue to receive Pell Grants or student loans.
  *   Requires the Secretary to defer student loan payments, principal, and interest for 6 months, through September 30, 2020, without penalty to the borrower for all federally owned loans.  This provides relief for over 95 percent of student loan borrowers.

Tax

Tax Provision Summary<https://www.finance.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/CARES%20Act%20Section-by-Section%20(Tax,%20Unemployment%20Insurance).pdf>

Section 2302. Delay of payment of employer payroll taxes

The provision allows employers and self-employed individuals to defer payment of the employer share of the Social Security tax they otherwise are responsible for paying to the federal government with respect to their employees. Employers generally are responsible for paying a 6.2-percent Social Security tax on employee wages. The provision requires that the deferred employment tax be paid over the following two years, with half of the amount required to be paid by December 31, 2021 and the other half by December 31, 2022. The Social Security Trust Funds will be held harmless under this provision.

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://list.cals.arizona.edu/pipermail/ced/attachments/20200326/97fe09f8/attachment.htm>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: CARES Section-by-Section.docx
Type: application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document
Size: 71535 bytes
Desc: CARES Section-by-Section.docx
URL: <https://list.cals.arizona.edu/pipermail/ced/attachments/20200326/97fe09f8/attachment.docx>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: Higher Ed COVID Letter-ES[1].pdf
Type: application/pdf
Size: 94294 bytes
Desc: Higher Ed COVID Letter-ES[1].pdf
URL: <https://list.cals.arizona.edu/pipermail/ced/attachments/20200326/97fe09f8/attachment.pdf>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: Tri-uni Letter Coronavirus Relief for IHE's.pdf
Type: application/pdf
Size: 180865 bytes
Desc: Tri-uni Letter Coronavirus Relief for IHE's.pdf
URL: <https://list.cals.arizona.edu/pipermail/ced/attachments/20200326/97fe09f8/attachment-0001.pdf>