Weekly TOPS payments will resume Feb. 18, according to a news release from the Louisiana Office of Student Financial Assistance.

LOSFA suspended payments Thursday afternoon as a precaution in response to the potential for budget cuts. But according to the release, LOSFA received clarification Thursday night explaining that universities rather than students would absorb the cost of the TOPS fund’s $28 million shortfall.

“Students will not receive any bills for this shortfall or lose any TOPS awards this semester,” Gov. John Bel Edwards said in a statement released Friday.

Current appropriations to LOSFA will allow the agency to cover 80 percent of TOPS payments while universities will pay the other 20 percent, according to the agency’s release.

In his Friday statement, Edwards said TOPS also faces being funded at just 25 percent for the upcoming year if the legislature cannot reach a solution.
“This means fewer TOPS scholarships will be awarded next year,” Edwards said in the statement. “That is why it is so important for the legislature to work with me to balance this budget and prevent future cuts.