COVID Relief Negotiations Restart Associations Ask For Additional Funds For Colleges and Universities – ACE
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin indicated last week that they’ll resume negotiations on a new COVID-19 economic relief package, which could come to the House floor for a vote as soon as this week. The stakes are high as the need around the country—from individuals to businesses to state and local governments to higher education—is overwhelming.
The reported $2.4 trillion bill is smaller than the $3.4 trillion provided in the Heroes Act which the House approved in May and included $37 billion for students and institutions. The proposed support for colleges and universities in the next relief bill has ranged from $29 billion in the HEALS Act (introduced by Senate Republicans) to as high as the $132 billion in the Coronavirus Childcare and Education Relief Act, legislation introduced in June by Sens. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Patty Murray (D-WA). The White House and congressional Republicans had previously opposed spending more than $1 trillion on additional relief, so it is unclear if a bill passed by the House would pass in the Senate.