- From Mary Sue’s Desk: Saying Farewell and Wishing Good Luck
- Negotiations Stall on Next Round of COVID-19 Relief
- AAU Urges Negotiators to Include Key Priorities in COVID-19 Relief Package
- AAU, Organizations Urge Lawmakers to Enact Nationwide Pandemic Liability Protections
- AAU, Higher Ed Organizations Urge Senate to Expand and Extend Student Loan Relief
- UMR Urges House, Senate to Include $15.5B for NIH in “Phase Four” COVID-19 Bill
- Ad Hoc Group Praises Inclusion of $15.5B for NIH in Senate COVID-19 Relief
- FY21 Appropriations Update
- Coalition Letter Urges NIH Human Fetal Tissue Ethics Advisory Board to Evaluate Studies Carefully
FROM MARY SUE’S DESK: SAYING FAREWELL AND WISHING GOOD LUCK
AAU President Mary Sue Coleman has shared her final blog post to reflect on her time at AAU and offer her best wishes for the future. President Coleman reflected that her term took place during a “consequential [time] for American higher education,” noting that AAU and our members have “dealt – with significant measures of success – with challenges to education and research funding, with misguided attacks against international students, with real hardships for undocumented students at our member universities, and with legitimate concerns about securing the intellectual property our research helps create.” In the post, she also noted that the AAU she leaves is far different than the AAU she joined in 2016, thanks to the diligent work of AAU staff and members. And she said she looks forward to applauding many more years of AAU’s successes.
NEGOTIATIONS BEGIN ON NEXT ROUND OF COVID-19 RELIEF
This week, House and Senate leaders and White House officials began negotiations on the next round of COVID-19 relief after Senate Republicans on Monday introduced their $1 trillion COVID-19 relief plan, collectively known as the “Health, Economic Assistance, Liability Protections, and Schools (HEALS) Act.” House Democrats introduced their $3 trillion proposal, the “Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus Emergency Solutions (HEROES) Act,” in May.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, who has been facilitating negotiations between the chambers, said that negotiators have made progress on some issues but remain divided on others and promised that talks would continue “as long as it takes to get this done.” Major sticking points in the relief plan include expanded unemployment benefits and a moratorium on evictions.
Following the introduction of the HEALS Act, AAU President Mary Sue Coleman issued a statement asserting that the package of legislation “falls significantly short of what is needed for students and research universities.” While President Coleman applauded the efforts of Senate Republicans to introduce the legislation, she noted that although the package includes many important provisions to help students and campuses, it also contains proposals that “unfairly and counterproductively [penalize] our students, faculty, staff, and campus communities.”
The Senate pandemic relief plan includes several bills which provide: $29 billion for the Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund; new funding for COVID-19 research; relief funding to help mitigate disruptions to NIH-supported research; and temporary and targeted protections from potentially meritless COVID-19 lawsuits against colleges and universities that are making reasonable efforts to safeguard students, faculty, staff, and visitors. Troublesome provisions include the “Safeguarding American Innovation Act,” which could block talented students and scholars from coming to the United States, and a measure to limit relief for schools that are required to pay the endowment tax created by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.
AAU URGES NEGOTIATORS TO INCLUDE KEY PRIORITIES IN COVID-19 RELIEF PACKAGE
Today, AAU sent a letter to House and Senate leaders and administration officials negotiating the next pandemic relief package to underscore the importance of including our recommendations for relief for research universities in the next COVID-19 stimulus measure. According to the letter, these recommendations would provide “significant relief for students, the research workforce, and the ability of research universities and hospitals to fight the pandemic and serve national interests.” Specifically, the letter urges lawmakers to include “at least $46.6 billion to support students and higher education institutions and their ability to serve students; at least $26 billion in research relief funding for federal research agencies; and temporary and targeted protections from potentially meritless COVID-19 lawsuits against colleges and universities.” Finally, the letter calls on Congress to work in a bipartisan manner to quickly complete the forthcoming comprehensive pandemic relief package.
AAU, ORGANIZATIONS URGE LAWMAKERS TO ENACT NATIONWIDE PANDEMIC LIABILITY PROTECTIONS
AAU on Wednesday joined ACE and 76 other higher education organizations on a letter to House and Senate leaders urging them to include S. 4317, the “Safeguarding America’s Frontline Employees To Offer Work Opportunities Required to Kickstart the Economy (SAFE TO WORK) Act,” in the forthcoming pandemic relief measure. The SAFE TO WORK Act would provide temporary and targeted protections from potentially meritless COVID-19 lawsuits against colleges and universities that are working to safeguard students, faculty, staff, and visitors. The organizations go on to say that while Congress has provided COVID-19 liability protections for healthcare providers and personal protective equipment manufacturers in the CARES Act – and some states have enacted pandemic liability protections of their own – a national solution is critical to provide greater certainty to colleges and universities as they plan to reopen.
AAU, HIGHER ED ORGANIZATIONS URGE SENATE TO EXPAND AND EXTEND STUDENT LOAN RELIEF
On Wednesday, AAU joined ACE and 45 other higher education organizations on a letter to Senate leaders urging them to expand and extend relief for student-loan borrowers in the forthcoming COVID-19 relief bill. The organizations recommend that the future pandemic relief bill include an extension of the current student loan grace period and of the temporary relief included in Section 3513 of the CARES Act for at least the next six months or until April 2021. The letter notes that these changes will help “borrowers who would otherwise struggle to repay their loans,” avoid needless confusion for borrowers, and reduce expenses for the Education Department.
UMR URGES HOUSE, SENATE TO INCLUDE $15.5B FOR NIH IN “PHASE FOUR” COVID-19 BILL
United for Medical Research, of which AAU is a member, released a statement Monday praising Senate Republicans for including $15.5 billion for the NIH in their COVID-19 relief proposal. According to the statement, “this relief package demonstrates that moving biomedical research forward must be a national priority,” especially as research labs and pathways to research have been closed due to the pandemic. The group goes on to urge the House and Senate to include this vital NIH funding in the forthcoming COVID-19 relief legislation.
AD HOC GROUP PRAISES INCLUSION OF $15.5B FOR NIH IN SENATE COVID-19 RELIEF
The Ad Hoc Group for Medical Research, which includes AAU, issued a statement supportive of the $15.5 billion of NIH funding included in Senate Republicans’ pandemic relief plan. The funding “represents a critical, immediate investment, necessary to maximize our nation’s capacity to quell the current crisis, take steps to prevent a recurrence of COVID-19 or the emergence of future pandemics, and sustain momentum” in disease research. The group then encourages members of Congress to include no less than $15.5 billion in the forthcoming COVID-19 relief bill.
FY21 APPROPRIATIONS UPDATE
The House today advanced the second FY21 appropriations minibus, the $1.31 trillion H.R. 7617, which includes: Commerce-Justice-Science, Defense, Energy-Water, Financial Services, Labor-HHS-Education, and Transportation-HUD. Thursday, the Trump administration threatened to veto the package and submitted a list of concerns including more than $200 billion in emergency spending and the incorporation of so-called “poison pills” in the legislation. Due to partisan disagreement over immigration policy and border wall funding, House Democrats have removed the Homeland Security spending bill from the minibus. The House has not yet announced its plans to vote on the Legislative Branch spending measure.
COALITION LETTER URGES NIH HUMAN FETAL TISSUE ETHICS ADVISORY BOARD TO EVALUATE STUDIES CAREFULLY
A coalition of scientific, medical, and patient organizations and businesses, including AAU, on Tuesday sent a letter to the NIH Human Fetal Tissue Ethics Advisory Board. The letter urges the board to consider the importance of human fetal tissue research to develop new tests, treatments, and cures to “reduce suffering from human diseases” during their evaluation of the ethics of research proposals using human fetal tissue. The letter notes that the existing legal review and evaluation process for research that uses human fetal tissue is “scientifically meritorious, legal, and ethically sound” and prohibits researchers from profiting from fetal tissue acquired for use in research. “Fetal tissue research has the potential to accelerate the end to the pandemic, reduce human suffering, and enable the U.S. to better respond to future public health threats,” the organizations note.