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Category: Health/Medical

Text and Section-by-Section Summaries of “Phase 3” Now Available

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The text of the Senate Republican stimulus bill, “Phase 3,” has been released and is available here.

In addition, several chairmen of the committees that would have jurisdiction over different parts of the bill have released summaries of the parts of the bill that they would oversee.  The section-by-section summaries of parts of the bill that are most relevant to UW and other universities are provided below:

As noted previously, this is the initial proposal from the Senate Republican and it will need to be modified along the way as they begin to negotiate with Congressional Democrats, who will also have their own priorities.

 

 

House Passes 2nd COVID-19 Appropriations Package, Next Senate

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Despite earlier push back, the House passed fixes to its financial relief package Monday night by Unanimous Consent. Conservative Senate Republicans also voiced concerns, specifically about the small business leave provisions. Those requirements for paid leave were apparently tweaked by tightening eligibility in some areas. It restricts paid family leave to $200 per day or $10,000 total. It also provides more generous tax credits to employers for providing paid leave than the initial bill.

The package, which still has no official cost estimate, would extend unemployment insurance, increase federal Medicaid spending, offer nearly $1 billion in additional food aid, provide free coverage for coronavirus testing, and more.

The measure now moves to the Senate  which is expected to take up the measure (HR 6201) today to cushion the economic blow of the COVID-19 pandemic.

 

Census Bureau Modifies Policies and Timelines on Info from Higher Education

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As part of the census process every 10 years, colleges and universities are required to collect and provide certain pieces of information about their student population to the Census Bureau. 2020 is a census year.

For the census, college students living in on-campus housing are counted through their university as part of the bureau’s Group Quarters Operation. Due to the impact of COVID-19 on colleges and universities, the Census Bureau issued a statement on Monday highlighting several modifications to the policies and timelines it had in place for the census.  The statement reads, in part, as follows:

  • In general, students in colleges and universities temporarily closed due to the COVID-19 virus will still be counted as part of this process.  Even if they are home on census day, April 1, they should be counted according to the residence criteria which states they should be counted where they live and sleep most of the time. We are asking schools to contact their students and remind them to respond.
  • Per the Census Bureau’s residence criteria, in most cases students living away from home at school should be counted at school, even if they are temporarily elsewhere due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The full statement from the Census Bureau is available here.

 

Senator Murray Unveils Bill to Help Schools Address COVID-19

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US Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) unveiled today a $2.7 Billion package aimed to assist schools and colleges with providing for student needs amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. Senator Murray is the Ranking Member on both the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, as well as the Appropriations subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education.

The Supporting Students in Response to Coronavirus Act would provide over $1 Billion to ensure college students have access to food, housing, child care, and other basic needs, as well as help institutions prepare for closures and pay cleaning fees. The bill would also ensure students do not have to pay back financial aid if they are forced to withdraw, and gives the Department of Education more flexibility regarding financial aid. Additionally, the proposal would help staff childcare centers and increase funds for the National Child Traumatic Stress Network. The bill is cosponsored by Democratic Leader Senator Schumer (D-NY) and Senator Gillibrand (D-NY).

Read the full story at Forbes.

House Passes Supplemental, Senate to Pass Soon

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Last night, the House passed, 415-2, the Coronavirus Preparedness and Response Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2020 (H.R. 6074) to provide emergency supplemental funding in response to the novel coronavirus. The Senate is expected to pass today.

The package is $8.3 billion, which lawmakers released hours before the vote, and it has $7.8 billion in new funding for programs and agencies within the HHS, Small Business Administration, and State Department. Additionally, the legislation includes a $500 million provision related to telehealth.

The Senate is expected to consider the legislation today.

The President has said he will sign the measure.

The bill has:

  • $2.2 billion, available through September 2022, for the CDC, including:
    • $950 million in grants and cooperative agreements for state/local surveillance, epidemiology, laboratory capacity, infection control, mitigation, communications, and other preparedness and response ($475 million that would be available/allocated within 30 days of enactment).
    • At least $300 million for global disease detection and emergency response.
    • $300 million for the Infectious Diseases Rapid Response Reserve Fund.
    • The ability for CDC to use such funds to support grants for construction, alteration, or renovation of non-Federally owned facilities to improve state/local preparedness and response capability.
    • Additional funding for existing public health preparedness grants (that should be funded at not less than 90% of previous funding levels).
  • $836 million, available through September 2024, for the NIH, including:
    • $826 million for the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) to prevent, prepare for, and respond to coronavirus domestically or internationally.
    • $10 million transferred from NIAID to the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences for worker-based training to prevent and reduce exposure of hospital employees and other first responders.
  • $3.1 billion, available through September 2024,  for the Public Health and Social Services Emergency Fund to support, among other activities:
    • Development and purchase of necessary countermeasures and vaccines.
    • Purchase of vaccines, therapeutics, diagnostics, and necessary medical supplies, including for potential deposit in the Strategic National Stockpile (with an additional $300 million in contingency funding to purchase additional products if needed).
    • Grants for construction, alteration, or renovation of non-Federally owned facilities to improve state/local preparedness and response capability.
  • $61 million, available until expended, for the Food and Drug Administration to support:
    • Development of medical countermeasures and vaccines.
    • Advanced manufacturing for medical products.
    • Monitoring of medical supply chains.
  • Authority for the Secretary of Health and Human Services to waive, under the public health emergency declaration for the novel coronavirus, certain current telehealth requirements by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
  • ~$2.5 billion (distributed around) for State, CDC and USAID for international support and response to COVID-19.