On the recordJune 25, 2020
before I get to the motion I am going to make, I am going to take just a few minutes to discuss the importance of why the Senate must pass the Coronavirus Relief Flexibility for Students and Institutions Act, which is S. 3947. This has to do with an action that we took as bipartisan colleagues-- a most important action--in March, passing the CARES Act. The CARES Act included $13.9 billion for higher education emergency relief for institutions to directly support students facing urgent needs related to this pandemic and also to support the institutions as they cope with the effects of COVID-19. From this amount, about $12.5 billion was provided to all institutions of higher ed, and they had to use half their dollars to award emergency aid to students and half the funds to cover the institutional expenses and needs. Congress was very careful in crafting this bipartisan provision to provide flexibility so that the institutions could make their own decisions about how to use and reward those funds--both for students and how to use them for institutions. Unfortunately, the Department of Education is not following congressional intent and is including additional restrictions and conditions that Congress did not include that are making these funds more difficult to access by students and by the institutions.…
