Dear Act4Chemistry Member:

On November 16th you received an Act4Chemistry alert asking you to write to your U.S. Representatives and urge them to protect the graduate education tax waiver as they considered tax reform legislation. With your help, Representatives received over 700 emails asking them to preserve the provision.

Since then, the tax reform bill has advanced with these key action items happening:

• The House voted and passed H.R. 1, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act - the bill does not preserve the graduate education tax waiver
• The Senate voted and passed H.R. 1 - the bill preserves the graduate education tax waiver
• Representative Kevin Brady (R-TX-08) stated there may be flexibility on the House's elimination of the graduate education tax waiver
• Congress will now work to reconcile the different versions of the House and Senate tax bill

As a reminder, the current House version of H.R. 1 eliminates beneficial tax provisions for graduate education, disproportionately and negatively impacting graduate students in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). The House version of H.R. 1 proposes to make this tuition abatement fully taxable as income, doubling or tripling graduate student's current taxable income.

As Congress moves to reconcile both bills, the time for you to act is now. We ask that you contact both your Senators and Representative and ask them to protect the graduate education tax waiver as they reconcile both bills.

To take action, please click on the "Take Action" button below. You have the option to personalize the letter with your own story.

For any questions, please email Act4Chemistry@acs.org.

Warm regards, 

Karen Garcia