Congress to Kick-Off 2022 with Vote on Courtney’s Bill to Support Educational Impact Aid for Public Schools

WASHINGTON, DC—Today, Rep. Joe Courtney (CT-02) shared the news the House will vote next week on S. 2959/H.R. 6126, the Supplemental Aid Impact Flexibility Act, a bill to support local schools serving large numbers of military families and that rely on federal Impact Aid to help fill out their resources. The Supplemental Aid Impact Flexibility Act was co-authored by Rep. Courtney, and represents his signature, bipartisan effort first started in 2020 to support local public schools in Ledyard and Groton. Courtney introduced the Supplemental Impact Aid Flexibility Act to the House on December 13^th as H.R. 6126, and S. 2959, the companion legislation, was passed unanimously in the Senate last month. The House is now scheduled to vote S. 2959/H.R. 6126 next week, sending it to President Biden's desk for signature and making it one of the first bills to become law in 2022.

"It's so important right now to make sure our local schools have the resources they need to stay open for in-classroom learning, and part of that is making sure they don't get shortchanged for funding they deserve and really rely on," said Rep. Courtney. "Last year our bill to protect Impact Aid funding was signed into law by President Trump, it was a big deal for our local schools here in Ledyard and Groton, and this year we pushed forward for them with a new bipartisan effort to streamline the Impact Aid process again next year. We need our schools to be focused on teaching, addressing learning loss, and staying open—not filling out paperwork. Our bipartisan bill helps make that happen, and I'm glad to kick-off the year by sending it to President Biden's desk next week."

Rep. Courtney's Supplemental Impact Aid Flexibility Act (H.R. 6126) would once again reduce barriers to full participation in the Impact Aid Program, which supports school districts in towns like Ledyard, Groton, and others across the country where high portions of land is removed from the local tax rolls, such as military bases and tribal lands. Courtney first began this effort for local schools last year, when his bipartisan Impact Aid bill was signed into law by President Trump. Click here to read more.

Courtney's new bill would allow these school districts to use their student headcount from the 2021-2022 school year, which has already been calculated, for their Impact Aid applications for the 2022-2023 school year, which are due on January 31, 2022. Amid the complexity of returning to school during the recovery, many schools are worried that they will be unable to get an accurate headcount of eligible students, and will receive less funding than they need from the Impact Aid program.

Courtney's Work to Support Local Schools That Rely on Impact Aid

Impact Aid was designed to assist local school districts that have lost property tax revenue due to the presence of tax- exempt Federal property, or that have experienced increased expenditures due to the enrollment of federally connected children, including children living on Indian lands and military families. The program supports local school districts with concentrations of children who reside on Indian lands, military bases, low-rent housing properties, and other Federal properties, or have parents in the uniformed services or employed on eligible Federal properties.

In the Summer of 2020, Courtney met with the superintendents of Groton and Ledyard Public Schools, who shared concerns that amid the confusion of returning to school amid the COVID-19 pandemic, schools would be unable to get an accurate headcount of eligible Impact Aid students, and would receive less funding than they needed from the federal program.

On August 25, 2020, Courtney announced the introduction of the bipartisan Impact Aid Coronavirus Relief Act to the 116^th Congress. The bill allowed schools to use their student headcounts from the 2020-2021 school year, which had already been calculated, for their Impact Aid applications for the current 2021-2022 school year. This flexibility removed an administrative requirement parents and school administrators and ensured that schools in eastern Connecticut with high numbers of military and tribal families maintained the financial support that they are entitled to during a time.

On December 7, 2020, Courtney's Impact Aid Coronavirus Relief Act was signed into law by President Trump, making it one of only a handful of COVID-19 relief bills signed into law under the previous Administration.

"This is a big deal for us," Michael Graner, former superintendent of Groton Public Schools, said at the time. "Groton has about 1000 military-dependent children who live in military housing, and because their parents don't pay property taxes on their military housing, the town misses out on that revenue." Click here to read more from the CT Examiner.

In 2021, many schools across the country have reported concerns about getting an accurate headcount for the 2022-2023 school year as the recovery continues. The Supplemental Impact Aid Flexibility Act (H.R. 6126) would ensure that federal Impact Aid for public school districts with high concentrations of children of U.S. servicemembers will not be adversely affected by COVID-19 during the upcoming school year because of a paperwork requirement.

Like the legislation from last Congress, Congressman Dusty Johnson (R-SD) joined Rep. Courtney in co-sponsoring this bipartisan legislation. The Supplemental Impact Aid Flexibility Act is sponsored by Sen. John Thune (R-SD) and Sen. Tina Smith (D-MN) in the Senate, where it passed in December 2021.

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