Congressman Rush Holt, D-N.J., and Congressman Phil English,
R-Pa., have agreed to sponsor a bill that would make graduate
fellowships and scholarships tax-exempt.
Since the last lobby day on Feb. 20 in Washington, D.C.,
representatives from universities across the nation have been going
back to the Capitol to continue working on getting final sponsors
for a tax exemption bill.
Currently, Holt is drafting a bill that would make stipends that
graduate students receive for their education tax-free.
Holt press aide Jim Kapsis said the Congressman believes it is
extremely important to have an indigenous resource of highly
educated workers.
“The idea is to encourage students to go into graduate
studies and particular research fields … we should give
incentives, not make it more difficult, for them to do so,”
he said.
The bill would restore the status of tax exemptions for graduate
students to that prior to the 1986 Internal Revenue Code overhaul.
Kapsis said the bill is in the process of being drafted and is
expected to be formally introduced in Congress later this year.
English, a member of the Ways and Means Committee, has also
agreed to sponsor a bill for graduate tax exemptions, said press
aide Idil Oyman.
“We do intend to have a provision that would treat
stipends with the same status as scholarships … therefore making
them tax-exempt,” she said.
Oyman said English has been “a long-time advocate in
making sure that all students have access to higher
education.”
The bill, called the Higher Education Affordability Act, is in
the drafting phase and is expected to be introduced within the next
month, she said.
The National Coalition for an Affordable and Accessible Graduate
Education, a coalition of graduate student organizations and higher
education groups, advocates a broadening of graduate tax exemptions
beyond required tuition, fees and books.
“We want to get more of what it actually costs in
attending colleges to be counted toward tax exemptions,” said
Anika Sandy, president of the National Association for
Graduate-Professional Students, an organizer of the campaign.
Once the tax-exemption bill is introduced, she said NAGPS would
start informing its membership as well as graduate students to
“truly start lobbying their respective senators and
congressmen to vote in favor of the bill.”
“We’re excited to hear the good news about our
sponsors,” said Hanish Rathod, Graduate Student Association
external vice president and board member of the University of
California Student Association, another organizer of the
campaign.
He said the next hurdle would be getting the bill attached to
proper legislation, and to do so “we need continued support
and pressure to ensure that this bill passes through Congress and
eventually becomes a law.”