President-Elect Biden's Relief Package Fact Sheet

President-Elect Biden's COVID Relief Package Fact Sheet

Last night, on Thursday, January 14th, President-elect Biden released a $1.9 trillion dollar relief package.  This policy proposal is called the "American Rescue Plan." This is a legislative package intended to change the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, advance economic recovery and invest in racial justice. 

Below are some key features as highlighted by the Partnership for Quality Home Healthcare: 

Vaccines

• $20 billion for a national vaccination program in partnership with states, localities, Tribes, and territories
• Expand FMAP to 100% for vaccine administration

Testing

• $50 billion to expand COVID-19 testing (purchase of rapid tests, investments to expand lab capacity, support for schools and local governments to implement regular testing protocols)

Public Health Response

• Fund 100,000 public health workers for vaccine outreach and contact tracing

Health Disparities

• Address health disparities (fund health services for underserved populations, expand Community Health Centers, invest in tribal health services)

Protect Vulnerable Populations in Congregate Settings

• Funding for states to deploy strike teams to long-term care facilities and to conduct infection control oversight
• Fund COVID-19 mitigation strategies, safe re-entry for formerly incarcerated, and vaccination in prisons, jails, and detention centers

Identify and Address New COVID-19 Strains

• Fund sequencing, surveillance, and outbreak analytics capacity

Emergency Relief and Critical Supplies

• $30 billion for the Disaster Relief Fund for supplies and protective gear
• 100% federal reimbursement for critical emergency response resources to states, local governments, and Tribes, including deploying the National Guard
• $10 billion to expand domestic manufacturing for pandemic supplies

Invest in COVID-19 Treatments

• Support development, manufacturing, and purchase of therapies
• Invest in studies of long-term health impacts of COVID-19 and potential therapies

Expanding Health Coverage and Health Services

• Subsidize COBRA through 9/30/2021
• Expand and increase the value of the Premium Tax Credit to eliminate premiums and ensure enrollees pay no more than 8.5% of income for coverage
• $4 billion to SAMHSA to expand access to behavioral health services
• $20 billion to the Veterans Health Administration

 Child Care

• $25 billion for hard-hit child care providers, including family child care homes
• $15 billion for Child Care and Development Block Grant program
• Increase childcare tax credits and child tax credits
• Expand Earned Income Tax Credit for childless adults

Support for Schools

• $170 billion, supplemented by additional state and local relief resources, for K-12 schools and higher education institutions

Protect and Support Workers

• Authorize OSHA to issue a COVID-19 Protection Standard and provide additional funding for OSHA enforcement and grant funding
• $350 billion in emergency funding for state, local, and territorial governments to support first responders and other essential workers

Emergency Paid Leave

• Reinstitute requirements and eliminate exemptions for employers to provide paid leave; this also would apply to healthcare workers and first responders
• Provide over 14 weeks of paid sick and family and medical leave
• Expand emergency paid leave to include federal workers
• Provide $1,400 per week paid leave benefit for individuals earning up to $73,000 annually
• Extend refundable tax credit to reimburse employers with less than 500 employees to cover 100% of the cost of paid leave
• Reimburse state and local government for cost of paid leave
• Extend emergency paid leave measures until 9/30/2021

Direct Relief to Families - $1 trillion

• Additional $1,400 per person checks (to supplement $600 payments in December)
• $400 per week unemployment insurance supplement and extend programs through 9/30/2021
• Extend eviction and foreclosure moratoriums and continue applications for federally-guaranteed mortgage forbearance until 9/30/2021
• $30 billion in rental and critical energy and water assistance
• $5 billion in emergency assistance to combat homelessness
• Extend 15% SNAP increase and temporarily cut state match
• $3 billion for WIC program
• $1 billion in nutrition assistance for US Territories
• Increase minimum wage to $15/hr
• Call on employers to provide frontline essential workers back hazard pay
• $1 billion for TANF

International Health and Humanitarian Response Support

• Mitigate pandemic’s impact on global health, food security, and gender-based violence
• Support international efforts to develop and distribute medical countermeasures
• Build capacity to fight COVID-19, its variants, and emerging biological threats

Support for Struggling Communities - $440 billion

• $15 billion in grants to hardest hit small businesses
• Leverage $35 billion in state, local, tribal, and non-profit small business financing programs into $175 billion low-interest loans and venture capital to help entrepreneurs

This information was provided by the Partnership for Quality Home Healthcare.