On Tuesday afternoon, Senate Republicans released the Delivering Immediate Relief to America’s Families, Schools, and Small Businesses Act, an approximately $500 billion proposal for the next round of relief funding, focusing on some of the more pressing healthcare, education and economic needs.

Some of the larger provisions of the new proposal include a $300 per week federal unemployment benefit through the end of the year, an additional round of Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) funding and liability protections from coronavirus-related lawsuits. It also includes $16 billion for coronavirus testing and a provision that would make a Treasury Department loan to the Postal Service, authorized under the CARES Act, forgivable.

More specifically for education, the proposal mirrors the HEALS Act, the Senate Republican’s July proposal, and calls for $105 billion for the Education Stabilization Fund. Of the $105 billion, the Elementary and Secondary Education fund would receive $70 billion, with two-thirds of that conditioned on local education agencies meeting certain requirements around in-person reopening. Higher education institutions would receive $29 billion with funding being allotted based on the number of Pell Grant recipients. The last $5 billion would go to the Governors’ Emergency Relief Fund, which could be used for any emergency grants for any part of education. Although the proposal does not include dedicated funding for CTE programs, CTE educators and programs could certainly benefit from funds allocated to the Education Stabilization Fund.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) announced that he expects to vote on the proposal later this week, but it is not expected to meet the required 60 vote threshold to pass. Democratic leaders have already called this proposal a non-starter because they believe it does not come close to addressing the problems at hand and they largely see it as a political exercise to try and protect vulnerable Republican Senators in their upcoming reelection bids. Negotiations between congressional leaders and the White House have been at a stalemate since being derailed last month.

We are continuing to advocate for critical resources for CTE and workforce programs to be included in the next relief package to ensure learners are prepared for labor market needs, particularly as the economy begins to rebuild after the pandemic. We need your help to emphasize this message with Congress. Click here to ask your Members of Congress to support the inclusion of funds for CTE, as provided in the Relaunching America’s Workforce Act, in the next relief package.