Dr. Kelvin Droegemier has been named the Acting Director of the National Science Foundation effective March 31st, 2020. Until yesterday, he was Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and Science Advisor to President Trump.
Category: Administration
Dept of Education Releases New Distance Learning Regulations
The US Department of Education has revealed new rules impacting distance learning; the Distance Learning and Innovation regulation is available in the Federal Register and is now open for a 30 day public comment period. The Department plans to publish a final regulation prior to November 1st, 2020.
The new regulation would implement:
- Emphasize demonstrated learning over seat time.
- Remove confusion over whether a course is eligible for Title IV aid by defining “regular and substantive” interaction between students and instructors.
- Clarify and simplify the requirements for direct assessment programs, including how to determine equivalent credit hours.
- Add a definition of “juvenile justice facility” to ensure that incarcerated students remain Pell eligible.
- Allow students enrolled in Title IV, Higher Education Act (HEA)-eligible foreign institutions to complete up to 25% of their programs at an eligible institution in the United States. This provision is particularly important for students temporarily unable to attend courses abroad due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Encourage employer participation in developing educational programs.
- Create a new, student-centric system for disbursing Title IV, HEA assistance to students in subscription-based programs.
- Require prompt action by the Department on applications to participate, or continue to participate, as an eligible institution in the HEA, Title IV program. In the past, these applications have been stalled for months or even years.
The Department emphasized that this regulation has been in the works for over a year, although it is now extremely relevant as colleges shift to online learning due to COVID-19.
Spending Package Signed Into Law
Department of Education Announces New Relief Measures
Today, US Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos announced the following new measures intended to relieve federal student loan borrowers amidst the COVID-19 national emergency.
- The Department will halt collection actions and wage garnishments related to federal student loans for a 60 day period beginning March 13th, 2020. Private collection agencies have been requested to stop proactive collection efforts.
- The Department will not request Treasury to withhold money from federal tax returns and social security payments.
- The Department will refund $1.3 billion in offsets to more than 800,000 borrowers. This represents offsets which were in the process of being withheld as of March 13th, 2020.
These measures are in addition to previously announced steps; federal loan interest rates have been adjusted to 0%, as well as all borrowers have the option to halt payments for 60 days from March 13th, 2020 by contacting their loan servicer.
Deal Reached On $2-Trillion Relief Package
Late last night/ early this morning, the Senate and White House negotiators reached a deal on a $2-trillion relief package. The Senate is expected to reconvene later today and approve it in short order.
While we haven’t seen the text yet, the following is from a letter that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) sent to Democrats that seeks to explain, in his words, some of the changes between the initial version and the version that was agreed to last night/this morning:
- 4 months of more unemployment insurance instead of 3 months.
- $55 billion increase in the Marshall Plan for our Health Care System.
- $150 billion for a state, tribal, and local Coronavirus Relief fund.
- $10 billion for SBA emergency grants of up to $10,000 to provide immediate relief for small business operating costs.
- $17 billion for SBA to cover 6 months of payments for small businesses with existing SBA loans.
- $30 billion in emergency education funding and $25 billion in emergency transit funding.
- $30 billion for the Disaster Relief Fund to provide financial assistance to state, local, tribal, and territorial governments, as well as private nonprofits providing critical and essential services.
- More than $10 billion for the Indian Health Services, and other tribal programs.
- Prohibit businesses controlled by the President, Vice President, Members of Congress, and heads of Executive Departments from receiving loans or investments from Treasury programs.
- Make rent, mortgage and utility costs eligible for SBA loan forgiveness.
- Ban stock buybacks for the term of the government assistance plus 1 year on any company receiving a government loan from the bill.
- Establish robust worker protections attached to all federal loans for businesses.
- Create real-time public reporting of Treasury transactions under the Act, including terms of loans, investments or other assistance to corporations.
- Create of Treasury Department Special Inspector General for Pandemic Recovery to provide oversight of Treasury loans and a Pandemic Response Accountability Committee to protect taxpayer dollars.
- Add a retention tax credit for employers to encourage businesses to keep workers on payroll during the crisis.
- Provide income tax exclusion for individuals who are receiving student loan repayment assistance from their employer.
- Eliminated $3 billion bailout for big oil.
- Eliminated “secret bailout” provision that would have allowed bailouts to corporations to be concealed for 6 months.
- Saved hundreds of thousands of airline industry jobs and prohibited airlines from stock buybacks and CEO bonuses.
On the House side, Speaker Pelosi has expressed her support for having the chamber adopt the Senate measure.
Read more about the situation here in the Washington Post and here in Politico.
We will continue to provide further details as they become available.