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Category: Health/Medical

Deal Reached on COVID-19 Bill

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As noted this morning, negotiators had been working to reach an agreement on the next COVID-19-related bill, scheduling a Senate session for this afternoon. A deal has officially been reached on the legislation.

The $484-billion measure includes, among other provisions:

  • $320 billion for the Paycheck Protection Program, which ran out of money next week
  • $75  billion for hospitals and other health care facilities
  • $25 billion for expanded COVID-19 testing as well as the development of a national strategy
  • $50 billion for SBA Economic Disaster Loans
  • $10 billion for SBA Economic Injury Grants

The bill does not include any additional funds for states and localities.

Senate Democrats are calling this package an “interim” measure, fully expecting to take up a “Phase 4” bill later this spring.

The Senate is scheduled to meet at 4 PM EDT with the hopes of passing the bill by unanimous consent.

Read more about the agreement here, here, and here.

Higher Ed Community Seeking Support for Research and Additional Funds for Institutions in “Phase 4”

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As the push for a “Phase 4” coronavirus bill gains steam, the higher education community has come up with a set of requests for the still-developing package, some of which would augment provisions in “Phase 3” while others would create new sources of funding.

The broader higher education community is jointly advocating for this proposal, which would add approximately $47 billion to the Higher Education Fund that was created in the $2.2-trillion CARES Act.  The request is based on a set of assumptions that the community made in order to craft a timely proposal.

The research university community is making another push for research funding in a Phase 4 package.  In an effort to address a portion of the problems being caused by the pandemic, the group proposal calls for, among other items, $26 billion in the next legislative package to address the various needs in the research enterprise.

Broader Higher Education Community Looks to Engage with Federal Government to Address Community-Wide Challenges

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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:

  • One set of requests addresses the immediate financial challenges facing both students and institutions.
  • Another set of requests focuses on the unique circumstances that research universities face as they deal with trying to mitigate the impact on research.
  • The third set  focuses on tax-related provisions that could assist students, families, and institutions.

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.