Agreement on Relief Package
The agreement reflects a quadrupling – from $500 million to more than $2 billion – for grants of up to $25,000 for small businesses affected by the pandemic, and also $50 million for cultural institutions. Toomey also said he would support the final package: ”Despite the significant reservations I have about some particular characteristics, I think the good outweighs the bad, and it is my intention to vote for it at this stage.” The agreement provides an additional $100 million in emergency financial assistance for eligible students with six or more units, with premium amounts set locally and made available by early April. The agreement also provides $20 million to reinstate students who have left their studies at community colleges due to the pandemic or to hire students who are at risk of leaving university. Both the House of Representatives and the Senate passed an ongoing resolution Sunday night to extend federal government funding by an additional day, as the deadline to avoid a shutdown was 11:59 p.m. .m .m. The extension gives time to draft the COVID relief plan and add it to a $1.4 trillion spending bill to fund the government until September. President Trump signed the extension late Sunday night. (§ 7502) This section includes additional funding for fiscal year 2021 for the National Science Foundation to provide research grants, fellowships, collaborative arrangements, and other covid-19 response activities. The plan, passed by both houses of Congress and signed by President Biden on March 11, 2021, includes a national COVID-19 vaccination program, $1,400 per person aid checks, financial assistance to small businesses, funds to reopen schools, expanded and extended unemployment insurance payments, rent subsidies, etc. The American Rescue Plan also includes a provision that student loan forgiveness issued between January 1, 2021 and December 31, 2025 is not taxable to the beneficiary.
Congressional leaders on Sunday reached an agreement on a $900 billion COVID-19 relief package that includes $600 in direct payments to Americans and $300 in unemployment increases for the next 10 weeks. In the broad category of relief for small businesses, the bill provided $325 billion, broken down as follows: food aid. The agreement is expected to increase the benefits of food brands (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP). It would also extend the pandemic EBT program to families with children in daycare and support the Special Supplementary Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) so that participants can purchase additional fruits and vegetables. Seniors are also included, with funding for seniors` nutrition services, including Meals on Wheels, and the Supplementary Food Program to provide food boxes for seniors. (§ 9013) This section extends until September 6, 2021 to federal-state agreements under which the total amount of weekly employment earnings included an additional $300 in pandemic-related federal unemployment benefits. This section also extends the additional $100 in mixed-income unemployment benefits to certain beneficiaries of at least $5,000 in self-employment income in the last taxation year preceding the regular claim up to that date. An adviser to Senator Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania and a senior Democratic adviser confirmed Late Saturday that the two sides had reached an agreement on the wording of Toomey`s proposal to liquidate federal reserve credit facilities set up to deal with the crisis in March. Toomey said on a conference call Sunday that he had agreed to restrict the wording so that it only applies to the three credit facilities established by the CARES Act.
The agreement allows families to receive the EITC and CTC based on their income in 2019. This has a significant impact on families whose incomes have fallen due to COVID. Together, the deal includes a total of 5.7 million payments to low-income Californians. The agreement will also extend by one month a moratorium on evictions that is due to expire at the end of the year, two people with knowledge of the matter said. The moratorium will be extended until January, when Democrats believe the new Biden administration can extend it again if necessary. The legislation will also provide about $25 billion in emergency assistance to tenants, people said, though it`s still unclear how that money would be paid. The COVID assistance deal also includes $25 billion in direct rent assistance and extends the moratorium on evictions until January 31, the same day the moratorium on student loans ends. .