Tax Bill Conference Committee Announced

Over the past few days, House and Senate leadership have announced the members of the conference committee that will reconcile the two tax bills. The House bill contains a provision that would make tuition waivers for graduate students subject to income tax, increasing the tax liability of hundreds of thousands of graduate students. The Senate bill does not include that provision.

It is imperative that we urge the members of the conference committee to reject that House provision in the final bill. This is a fight we can win. Thirty-one House Republicans have signed a letter urging House and Senate leadership and the leadership of the conference committee to reject the tax on tuition waivers.

Targeted Outreach to Conferees

Since the conference committee members have been announced, we have begun targeted outreach to our advocates in the states and districts of the Republican members, encouraging them to write or call their Members of Congress.

If it is an activity appropriate to your organization, we encourage you to share our action alert with your members or colleagues in these key districts and states. Given the complexity of determining which colleges and universities are in each congressional district, we have compiled a list of those in targeted districts for you. If you have contacts at these schools--particularly department chairs, deans, provosts, or presidents--please encourage them to take action and to share the alert with colleagues.

We are unsure of the timeline on which the committee will be resolving these differences, but we recommend reaching out to your members and colleagues early next week.

Committee Members

The members of the committee are listed below. Please click here to see the colleges and universities in the Republican districts. We also encourage you to reach out to contacts at the higher education institutions in the states represented by the senators.

Senate

Orrin G. Hatch (R-UT)

Mike Enzi (R-WY)

Lisa Murkowski (R-AK)

John Cornyn (R-TX)

John Thune (R-SD)

Rob Portman (R-OH)

Tim Scott (R-SC)

Pat Toomey (R-PA)

Ron Wyden (D-OR)

Bernie Sanders (D-VT)

Patty Murray (D-WA)

Maria Cantwell (D-WA)

Debbie Stabenow (D-MI)

Bob Menendez (D-NJ)

Tom Carper (D-DE)

House

Kevin Brady (R-TX)

Devin Nunes (R-CA)

Peter Roskam (R-MI)

Diane Black (R-TN)

Kristi Noem (R-SD)

Rob Bishop (R-UT)

Don Young (R-AK)

John Upton (R-MI)

John Shimkus (R-IL)

Richard Neal (D-MA)

Sander Levin (D-MI)

Lloyd Doggett (D-TX)

Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ)

Kathy Castor (D-FL)

National Humanities Alliance
http://www.nhalliance.org/