20 U.S.C. § 1134b — Stipends

(a) Award by Secretary The Secretary must pay to people awarded fellowships under this subpart that stipends as the Secretary may establish, reflecting the purpose of this program to encourage highly talented students to undertake graduate study as described in this subpart. In the case of an person who receives that person’s first stipend under this subpart in academic year 2009–2010 or any succeeding academic year, that stipend must be set at a level of support equal to that provided by the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program for that academic year, except that amount must be adjusted as necessary so as not to exceed the fellow’s demonstrated level of need determined under part F of subchapter IV. (b) Institutional payments (1) In general (A) The Secretary must (in addition to stipends paid to people under this subpart) pay to the institution of higher education, for each person awarded a fellowship under this subpart at that institution, an institutional allowance. Except as provided in subparagraph (B), that allowance must be, for academic year 2009–2010 and succeeding academic years, the same amount as the institutional payment made for academic year 2008–2009, adjusted for academic year 2009–2010 and annually thereafter under inflation as determined by the Department of Labor’s Consumer Price Index for the previous calendar year. (B) The institutional allowance paid under subparagraph (A) must be reduced by the amount the institution charges and collects from a fellowship recipient for tuition and other expenses as part of the recipient’s instructional program. (2) Special rules (A) Beginning March 1, 1992 , any applicant for a fellowship under this subpart who has been notified in writing by the Secretary that that applicant has been selected to receive that a fellowship and is subsequently notified that the fellowship award has been withdrawn, must receive that fellowship unless the Secretary subsequently makes a determination that that applicant submitted fraudulent information on the application. (B) Subject to the availability of appropriations, amounts payable to an institution by the Secretary under this subsection must not be reduced for any purpose other than the purposes specified under paragraph (1).