Thirty-one Republican members of Congress signed a letter yesterday to House and Senate leaders, asking them to keep tuition waivers graduate students receive from universities tax free, despite a provision in the bill passed by the House that would count those tuition waivers as taxable income.
“A tax on graduate tuition waivers would be unfair, would undermine our competitive position, and would inhibit the economic growth that tax reform promises,” the representatives wrote. In so doing, they may have doomed the provision in the final version of the bill that comes out of conference and is sent to President Donald Trump.
The lawmakers refer to Amazon’s intention to locate its second world headquarters in an area with a “highly educated labor pool” and a “strong university system.” If the tax reform act, whatever it ends up being, is supposed to spur job creation, making universities non-functional by taking away opportunities for grad students to attend—grad students teach many, many classes, especially at large research universities—isn’t the way to go.
“Tax policy should make our country more competitive, and creating barriers to technological progress is contrary to that goal,” they wrote. “We strongly urge you to ensure that this harmful provision is not in the final version of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.”
Signers (all Republican representatives)
- Pete Sessions of Texas
- Phil Roe, MD, of Tennessee
- Lamar Smith of Texas
- Ed Royce of California
- Tom Cole of Oklahoma
- Steve Stivers of Ohio
- Michael C Burgess, MD, of Texas
- F James Sensenbrenner Jr of Wisconsin
- John Culberson of Texas
- Randy Hultgren of Illinois
- David B McKinley, PE, of West Virginia
- Kevin Yoder of Kansas
- Doug Lamborn of Colorado
- Blake Farenthold of Texas
- Rodney Davis of Illinois
- Jodey Arrington of Texas
- Chris Collins of New York
- Luke Messer of Indiana
- Evan Jenkins of West Virginia
- John Katko of New York
- Bill Johnson of Ohio
- Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania
- Ted Yoho, DVM, of Florida
- Bradley Byrne of Alabama
- Glenn “GT” Thompson of Pennsylvania
- Roger Marshall, MD, of Kansas
- Chris Stewart of Utah
- Earl L “Buddy” Carter of Georgia
- Susan W Brooks of Indiana
- Keith Rothfus of Pennsylvania
- Bill Flores of Texas