AAU joined ACE and 40 other higher education organizations on a letter House Ways and Means Committee and Senate Finance Committee leaders concerning the taxability of emergency federal student aid grant relief included in the CARES Act. The letter urges Congress to ensure that the “Phase Four” COVID-19 relief legislation include provisions to exempt federal student aid from taxation. Currently, scholarship or grant aid that is not spent on “qualified tuition and related expenses” could be subject to taxation, the letter says. The organizations say that “taxing this emergency aid would undermine the benefit of the grants to students and negate the intent of Congress in authorizing the aid to help the most vulnerable students.”