Countering the Republican efforts to assist students that were included in the “Phase 3” bill, Senate Democrats released a summary of their own proposal on the issue. The legislative text for the plan has not yet been released.
The summary of the plan, as prepared by the Democratic staff, is here and a press release about the proposal is here.
Again, while the legislative text is not yet available, the centerpiece of the plan is the federal repayment of student loans during the COVID-19 crisis.
Yesterday, the broader higher education community sent to Congress a series of recommendations and requests for assistance aimed at stabilizing the entire enterprise as it tries to cope with COVID-19. The requests fall into a number of distinct categories:
Today President Trump announced the below changes affecting the Department of Education as a result of COVID-19:
The changes are designed to allow school districts to cope with long-term closures, as well as allow loan borrowers to offset financial hardships as a result of the COVID-19 national emergency.
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.
Earlier this evening, Senate Republicans unveiled their initial version of the “Phase 3” stimulus bill in an attempt to prevent further damage to the economy. The center piece of the package is direct payments of up to $1,200 for individuals and $2,400 for married couples, with the payments being cut off at individuals making $99,000 per year.
The proposal includes additional assistance to other sectors of the economy, such as $50 billion for the air line industry and $8 billion for the air cargo industry.
While the measure was introduced by the Senate Republican leadership, there is still disagreement within the Senate ranks. In addition, neither the House or Senate Democrats were involved in the drafting of the proposal, meaning changes are likely along the way.