Overview of the American Rescue Plan Act

Key Takeaways:

• Provides economic relief to families and individuals in the form of cash payments, unemployment supplements, tax credits, food support, and housing assistance.
• Allocates funding to combat the COVID-19 pandemic, to include vaccine distribution, testing, tracing, and genomic sequencing.
• Provides funding to help schools safely reopen, rehire workers at transit agencies, and support restaurants.
• Allots money for federal technology modernization and cybersecurity.

The package includes funding and actions to combat the pandemic, provide economic relief to families, support communities and modernize federal IT.

Below is a summary of the provisions of the final legislation:

Provisions to Provide Economic Relief to Families

• Distributes $1,400 per-person to working families
• Raises weekly supplemental unemployment benefits to $400 through August.
• Expands the Child Tax Credit to $3,000 from $2,000, and to $3,600 for children under the age of six
• Nearly triples the Earned Income Tax Credit for some workers
• Expands the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit giving working families up to $4,000 for the child care expenses of one child and up to $8,000 for two or more children
• Provides $350 billion in financial assistance to state and local governments to prevent the mass layoff of public sector workers
• Provides $40 billion to support child care, including $25 to create an emergency stabilization fund for child care providers, $15 billion for the Child Care and Development Block Grant program, and $1 billion for Head Start
• Shores up 185 pension plans to protect retirement benefits for American workers.
• Provides $12 billion in food support to families in need through nutrition programs like SNAP, WIC, and Pandemic EBT
• Provides $45 billion in rental and utility assistance and mortgage relief to millions of tenants and homeowners who are in danger of eviction
• Provides investments for homeless assistance for appropriate housing that will protect health and help decrease COVID-19 transmissions with safe and socially-distant housing

Provisions to Combat the COVID-19 Pandemic

• Provides $14 billion for vaccine distribution
• Allots $49 billion for COVID-19 testing, tracing, and genomic sequencing
• Provides $8 billion to strengthen the public health workforce
• Allocates $11 billion for public health investments, including expansions of community health centers and the National Health Service Corps
• Provides $6 billion for the Indian Health Service
• Provides $35 billion to make the Affordable Care Act’s exchanges more affordable for working- and middle-class Americans
• Increases Medicaid’s federal match to states and expands the program for pregnant and postpartum women
• Injects $50 billion into the Disaster Relief Fund to ramp up the president’s national vaccination program and provides flexible, targeted assistance to state, local, Tribal, and territorial governments
• Provides $10 billion to enable the president to use the authorities of the Defense Production Act to purchase, manufacture, and distribute medical supplies and equipment

Provisions that Assist with Children’s Education

• Provides $130 billion to help schools safely reopen, including items such as PPE, ventilation, reduced class sizes and space modification for social distancing
• Provides $40 billion to cover many of the COVID-related costs and address major revenue losses at America’s colleges and universities.
• Invests $7 billion in broadband so that millions of public school students will receive the high-speed internet services they need for their education

Actions that Provide Support to Communities and Businesses

• Supplies $30 billion for transit agencies who have been deeply impacted by the pandemic and forced to cut service and jobs in 2020
• Provides necessary funding to allow Amtrak to rehire 1,500 workers who were involuntarily furloughed last year, and to restore regular service to more remote communities that rely on Amtrak as a link to economic centers
• Provides $15 billion in additional relief for small businesses and hard-hit industries through increased funding for Targeted EIDL grants
• Allots $25 billion in funding for a new dedicated grant relief program for restaurants
• Provides $7 billion for expanded PPP assistance for nonprofits and digital news services
• Allocates $1 billion in Save Our Stages grants for independent live venues, independent movie theaters, and cultural institutions

Provisions that Support Veterans and Tribal Nations  

• Provides $17 billion for health care and other support to meet the needs of veterans during the pandemic, including vaccine distribution, expanded mental health care, enhanced telehealth capabilities, extended support for veterans who are homeless or in danger of becoming homeless, PPE and supplies for clinical employees, and improved supply chain management.
• Supplies $9 billion for essential Tribal and federal safety-net programs that serve Native communities

Provisions to Modernize Federal Information Technology and Cybersecurity  

• Provides $1 billion for the Technology Modernization Fund (TMF)
• Allocates $650 million to CISA
• Provides $200 million for the U.S. Digital Service
• Supplies $150 million to General Services Administration for a Federal Citizen Services fund