Both the House and Senate have passed differing versions of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. The House bill contains a provision that would make tuition waivers for graduate students subject to income tax, significantly increasing the tax liability of hundreds of thousands of graduate students. The Senate bill does not include that provision. The House and Senate will now form a conference committee to reconcile the two versions of the bill. It is imperative that we urge Members of Congress to reject that House provision in the final bill. 

Our colleagues at the National Humanities Alliance have issued a legislative alert concerning graduate student tuition waivers. Please click here to take action via their online advocacy center and encourage others to do so via social media. They have activated patch-thru calling in addition to automated email messages.

This is now a high-profile issue, with coverage in the New York Times, the Washington Post, and Vox. While we expect the conference committee to play an outsized role in the negotiations, it is important that as many legislators as possible hear from their constituents on this issue.