President-elect Joe Biden released details of his administration’s first legislative proposal, a $1.9 trillion COVID relief proposal, titled the “American Rescue Plan.”
The scale of the plan is more than twice the size of the Obama-era Recovery Act and is modeled on an FDR-style strategy to put our country in a better position than it was before the pandemic hit.
Click Here and Tell Congress: Pass the American Rescue Plan
The package, according to the New York Times, “includes more than $400 billion to combat the pandemic directly, including money to accelerate vaccine deployment and to safely reopen most schools within 100 days. An additional $350 billion would help state and local governments bridge budget shortfalls, while the plan would also include a dramatic increase in tax credits to help lift children, families, and workers out of poverty, $1,400 direct payments to individuals, more generous unemployment benefits, federally mandated paid leave for workers, food and housing aid, and large subsidies for child care costs.”
In his announcement of the plan, Biden said, “The very health of our nation is at stake. We have to act and we have to act now.”
More than 23 million Americans have contracted COVID-19 and roughly 400,000 have already died.
It’s critical that members of Congress hear from people in every state across our country. This is a time for action. Congress must start legislating solutions to the economic and health crises caused by the pandemic.
Click Here and Tell Congress: Pass the American Rescue Plan
This is a historic rescue package to fund vaccinations and contain the virus, deliver direct, immediate relief to those hardest hit, and support struggling communities. The American Rescue Plan includes:
The most recent jobs report shows job losses are continuing—leaving far too many Americans barely scraping by, or falling further and further behind, through no fault of their own as they lose jobs or see smaller paychecks.
With both houses of Congress controlled by Democrats, and Joe Biden in the White House, we now have an opportunity to pass legislation that reflects our shared priorities and meets the urgency of the moment.
The Human Needs Report is CHN’s newsletter on national policy issues affecting low-income and other vulnerable populations.
