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Here’s what’s in Biden’s COVID relief plan

President Biden vowed to make COVID relief a priority as soon as he took office. His $1.9 trillion COVID relief proposal is called the American Relief Plan. Below is a summary provided by our friends at Community Catalyst.

NOTE: The Biden Administration has said that they are taking a two-step approach to COVID relief: “rescue” and “recovery.” The outline below is the “rescue” part.

The American Relief Plan

  • A national vaccination program and scaled-up testing. 
    • $20 billion in a national vaccination program in partnership with states, localities, tribes, and territories, including creating community vaccination centers and mobile vaccination units.
    • $50 billion to expand testing, including rapid tests, expanded lab capacities, and help for schools and local governments.
    • $10 billion to manufacture pandemic supplies domestically
    • $30 billion to the Disaster Relief Fund for supplies and protective gear.
  • A public health jobs program and funds toward addressing health disparities.
    • Fund 100,000 health workers to expand the public health workforce
    • Increase funding for health services to underserved populations and those who live in congregate settings, such as nursing homes & prisons/jails
  • Money for reopening schools. 
    • $130 billion to help schools reopen safely
    • $35 billion in funding for higher education
    • $5 billion for governors to use to support educational programs for those hardest hit by Covid-19.
  • Emergency paid leave. 
    • Expanding paid sick leave to 106 million more Americans, including renewing the expired requirement for employers to provide leave and expanding emergency paid leave to federal workers.
  • Stimulus checks. 
    • Add $1,400 to the latest round of stimulus checks so that they total $2,000.
    • Expand eligibility for the checks to adult dependents left out of previous rounds and to mixed-immigration status households.
  • Extended unemployment insurance.
    • An increase from $300 to $400 through September, extending the date from March 14 and will also continue extended benefits to people who have exhausted benefits or wouldn’t normally qualify, such as contractors or freelancers.
  • Housing assistance. 
    • Extending eviction and foreclosure moratoriums through September
    • $30 billion toward rental assistance, and
    • $5 billion in emergency assistance to secure housing for the homeless.
  • Food benefits. 
    • Extending 15 percent increase in SNAP benefits through September,
    • $3 billion in the special supplemental nutrition program for WIC, and
    • Provide US territories with $1 billion in nutritional assistance.
  • Child care assistance.
    • $25 billion emergency stabilization fund for child care providers
    • An additional $15 billion to the Child Care and Development Block Grant Program.
  • Tax credits for children and low–income workers. 
    • Expand the child tax credit —to $3,000 per child up to age 17 and $3,600 for children under age 6.
    • Increases the earned income tax credit from about $530 to $1,500 and expands eligibility.
  • Support for small business. 
    • $15 billion in grants to hard-hit small businesses and leveraging
    • $35 billion in government funds into $175 billion in loans and investment in small businesses.
  • Support for state and local governments.    
    • $350 billion in funds for state, local, and territorial governments. It’s framed as money that will help pay frontline workers, reopen schools, and get people vaccinated.
    • $20 billion in relief for public transit agencies
    • $20 billion to support tribal governments’ pandemic response.
  • A $15 minimum wage.
    • increase the minimum wage to $15 per hour
    • End the tipped minimum wage and sub-minimum wage for people with disabilities.
    • It also calls on employers to provide hazard pay.

What comes next? This proposal could move in full through regular order or large pieces of it could be included in the budget reconciliation process. See Dylan Matthew’s piece here on what could be included in the reconciliation process. We will be watching this process closely and will continue to share updates as we know more.

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Cross-posted from the newsletter of Kentucky Voices for Health

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