President Donald Trump signed the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act in March, which dedicated about $14 billion to postsecondary education. The bulk of this funding was divided evenly into two pots: one for colleges to defray their pandemic-related expenses, and another for emergency grants for students.
Since then, however, lawmakers have been unable to come to a consensus on more aid. House Democrats pushed a sweeping $2.2 trillion bill, dubbed the Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus Emergency Solutions (HEROES) Act, which set aside $39 billion for the sector. Republicans wrote it off as overreaching.