House Democrats have released a new draft of a Phase IV COVID-19 relief proposal, the Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus Emergency Solutions (HEROES) Act 2.0. The $2.2 trillion bill is a compromise between their original position of $3.4 trillion and the Senate Republican's $1 trillion Health, Economic Assistance, Liability Protection and Schools (HEALS) Act that was introduced on July 27th. Items of note for the public higher education and research communities include:

• $27 billion for the Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund, distributed through governors to individual colleges and universities to cover COVID-19 related expenses/losses, potentially yielding over $60 million for FSU;
• $238 billion for state stabilization efforts;
• Inclusion of public universities in paid leave tax credits created in the Families First Coronavirus Response Act;
• $2.837 billion to the National Science Foundation for COVID-19 related expenses;
• $3 billion to the National Institutes of Health for COVID-19 related losses; 
• $1 billion to NIH for COVID-19 research; and
• $20 billion to BARDA for COVID-19 research.

House leaders are actively engaged with the White House on the compromise proposal. Additionally, the bill will likely get a vote in the House this week. However, Senate leaders are not in agreement and actual movement to a final deal before the election remains unlikely.

HEROES Act 2.0 Summary