[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 195 (Thursday, November 30, 2017)]
[House]
[Page H9525]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 DECRYING GRADUATE STUDENTS' TUITION ASSISTANCE CLASSIFIED AS TAXABLE 
                                 INCOME

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
Wisconsin (Ms. Moore) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. MOORE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to decry a provision in this tax 
bill that would amount to shocking tax increases of thousands of 
dollars for struggling graduate students by reclassifying their tuition 
assistance as taxable income.
  These students provide research and teaching services as work to 
offset tuition. I mean, we are talking about assistants in the dorms, 
teaching assistants for undergraduate courses, researchers in 
laboratories--all who contribute to universities for quite modest 
stipends and tuition credits to avoid going further into debt and to 
support themselves while completing their master's degrees and Ph.D.'s.
  Taxing this so-called income would impose a profoundly negative 
impact on education. Schools across the country could lose half their 
current graduate students, and it would diminish the number of students 
who would even consider graduate school in the future.
  Mr. Speaker, what is to become of the vital research and development 
in the fields of medicine and engineering and agriculture and 
information technology--things that have led to innovation and 
invention, things that have truly made America great--with this tax 
provision?
  An example from my very own alma mater, Marquette University, raises 
the problems with parents. There is a maintenance mechanic who has 
three--three, triplets--college-age students. He receives $40,000 of 
tuition assistance for each of these students. I mean, for real, Mr. 
Speaker, we are going to deem $120,000 income to this maintenance 
person?
  Be for real. My constituent, Tim, writes:

       As a graduate student in the third year of a Ph.D. program, 
     I am married, have a 4-month-old. My wife works full time as 
     a high school teacher. My research focuses on investigating 
     how persons who have suffered from a neurological disease 
     such as a stroke or spinal cord injury are able to move. This 
     tuition waiver is the only reason I can afford graduate 
     school and do the research I am doing to help the disabled.
       If this becomes taxable income, my wife and I would move 
     into a higher tax bracket, and my tax liability would 
     increase roughly 40 percent, without a single dime of an 
     increase in income with which I could pay that. This equals 
     roughly $1,300 per month of taxes.

  At the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, also in my district, 
graduate student Shandra is finishing her master's in library and 
information science. Under the Republican House bill, Shandra's income, 
in the eyes of the government, would effectively double.
  Now, you know, doubling the standard deduction, letting people file 
on a postcard will not offset the draconian tax cuts that these 
graduate students would experience. Taxing tuition credits would hurt 
lower and middle class, hardworking citizens who rely on this benefit 
to help them and their families achieve the American Dream.
  I urge my colleagues and people in the public, Mr. Speaker, not to 
fall for this trick, and I urge my colleagues in the Senate to oppose 
this harmful bill.

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