[Wsssc] {Disarmed} FW: FYI: DeVos unveils rule blocking emergency relief grants to undocumented students

[Joe Holliday]

Good morning, WSSSC. In case you didn’t see this (below)…

From: "Wilson, Morgan (GOV)" <Morgan.Wilson at gov.wa.gov<mailto:Morgan.Wilson at gov.wa.gov>>
Date: June 11, 2020 at 6:20:28 PM PDT
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Subject: FYI: DeVos unveils rule blocking emergency relief grants to undocumented students

FYI – copy of the prepublication rule here: https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ope/caresactifreligibility6112020.pdf?source=email



DeVos unveils rule blocking emergency relief grants to undocumented students

By Michael Stratford

06/11/2020 05:19 PM EDT

The Trump administration Thursday unveiled a new regulation that would require colleges to limit emergency coronavirus relief grants for expenses like food and housing only to students who qualify for federal financial aid.

The “interim final rule<https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ope/caresactifreligibility6112020.pdf?source=email>” carries out Education Secretary Betsy DeVos’ policy, first announced in April<https://www.politico.com/news/2020/04/21/betsy-devos-undocumented-college-students-aid-199465?source=email>, of preventing CARES Act emergency grants from going to undocumented students and others who don’t qualify for federal student aid.

The rule will take effect immediately after it is published in the Federal Register, which the department said would happen on June 15. The agency will also accept public comments on the policy for 30 days.

DeVos said in a statement that the rule was aimed at eliminating any "uncertainty" for colleges about how they must distribute the funds and carrying out the department's "responsibility to taxpayers to administer the CARES Act faithfully."

The rule comes as the Education Department is facing legal challenges to its policy restricting which students can receive CARES Act grants.

A federal judge in San Francisco earlier this week indicated that she will likely rule soon on the California community college system’s request for an order blocking DeVos from imposing the restrictions. The judge appeared skeptical of the Trump administration’s arguments in favor of imposing federal student aid eligibility requirements on the emergency CARES Act grants.

The 44-page regulatory notice released by the Education Department on Thursday outlines in greater detail the Trump administration’s justification for imposing restrictions.

In the CARES Act, H.R. 748 (116), Congress set aside at least $6.25 billion for “emergency financial aid grants to students” to help them pay for expenses such as food, housing, health care, technology and child care.

But the Trump administration argues that Congress never defined “student” for the purposes of those grants and therefore the Education Department is entitled to deference in coming up with its own definition.

The Trump administration argues that the context of the CARES Act indicates that Congress intended to limit the funding only to those students who qualify for federal student aid.

In the regulatory notice, officials also outlined several new policy reasons why the department wanted to curb access to the grants, namely that the restrictions would help “prevent potential waste, fraud, and abuse.”

The department said that it would not retroactively enforce the new rule against colleges, which have already been doling out billions of dollars in grants to students. More than $11 billion of roughly $12.5 billion in emergency higher education funds under the CARES Act have been distributed to colleges already, the department said.

The department said it considered — but decided against — waiving some of the federal student aid requirements, such as the one related to drug offenses. Doing so, the department said, “would not be fair across groups of students.”

Democrats and college and university officials have cried foul over the Trump administration’s restrictions on the CARES Act funding, arguing that they run afoul of Congress’ intent to provide flexible relief to all students dealing with the coronavirus pandemic.

Rep. Bobby Scott, chair of the House Education and Labor Committee, blasted the new restrictions in a statement, accusing DeVos of “violating both the language and intent of the CARES Act in order to prevent struggling students from getting relief during this crisis.”

“There is no language in the CARES Act prohibiting certain students from receiving emergency assistance,” Scott (D-Va.) said. “The Department is simply inventing arbitrary restrictions that target vulnerable students, including those who have defaulted on federal loans, undocumented students, and other groups of students who are among the most likely to need help.”

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