Congress hammered out the overall $900 billion deal in December, roughly nine months after approving the first round of funding. The new money was briefly imperiled when President Donald Trump unexpectedly declined to sign the measure, though he eventually did so.
The relief legislation provides about $23 billion for colleges, with some set-asides such as for minority-serving institutions. It also gives $681 million to for-profit colleges.
The first aid bill — the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security, or CARES, Act — determined colleges’ allocations based on their full-time-equivalent enrollment, weighted heavily toward how many students receive federal Pell Grants, a proxy for campus poverty.
