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Category: Administration

Senate Passes Second Supplemental

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The US Senate has passed the second supplemental appropriations bill approved by the House late last week. The legislation is now awaiting the President’s signature to become law. President Trump has expressed support for the bill.

The Families First Coronavirus Response Act was the result of negotiations between Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. The bill provides sick leave, unemployment assistance, over $1 billion in food aid, and free COVID-19 testing.

Department of Education Relaxes Rules for Accreditors

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Amidst COVID-19, the Department of Education sent a letter to higher education accrediting agencies allowing them to relax rules regarding site visits. Accreditors will be allowed to conduct virtual site visits, and can extend an institution’s accreditation if a site visit or hearing would not be possible. However, the virtual site visit must be “engaged” and “interactive” and followed up by an in-person visit eventually. The Department stressed that this should be considered a “unique and temporary departure” from requirements.

Associations Ask for Regulatory Flexibility in Light of COVID-19

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On March 9, the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) granted federal agencies the authority to provide regulatory flexibility on research and other federally funded efforts that they viewed as important in response to COVID-19.

Earlier today, four higher education associations representing a vast swath of the research university community– AAU, APLU, AAMC, and COGR– wrote to OMB asking that such regulatory flexibility be expanded to other federally funded research as institutions are grappling with research environments that are rapidly changing, sometimes by the minute.  The letter is available here.

Senate Passes Bill to Address Problems in GI Bill and On-line Programs

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The Senate adopted yesterday a bill that would address an unforeseen problem in the way in which GI Bill benefits would be calculated as a result of academic programs transitioning to on-line programs due to  COVID-19.  Because many of the academic programs which have transitioned to on-line delivery did so without preapproval by the state approving agency, beneficiaries would have lost out on their benefits, including their housing benefits.  The legislation would address these deficiencies in the program and allow the GI Bill participants to continue to receive their benefits.

The text of the Senate-passed legislation is is available here.

The House is also working on a companion bill that addresses this problem.