Manning Applauds Final Passage of the American Rescue Plan

Washington, D.C. – Today, Rep. Kathy Manning (NC-06) applauded the final passage of the American Rescue Plan. Next, the bill will be signed into law by President Biden.

“Since taking office in January, my top priority has been to crush this pandemic and get our economy moving again. I’m proud to support the American Rescue Plan because it does just that,” said Rep. Manning. “The American Rescue Plan allocates critical funding to reopen schools safely, extends unemployment benefits, expands rental and nutrition assistance, increases vaccine distribution, gets survival checks to families in need, expands the child tax credit and supports state and local governments. Help is on the way for the American people.”

The American Rescue Plan is a $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package. See some of the highlights below and read the full package here.

• Increases the direct payments to working families: This bill includes $1,400 survival checks for Americans. Under the bill, single filers with incomes up to $75,000, head of household filers with incomes up to $112,500, and joint filers with incomes up to $150,000 will receive the full payment of $1,400.
• Extends the federal supplemental unemployment benefit (FPUC):  The bill extends the federal supplemental unemployment benefit through September 6 and maintains the monthly supplemental benefit of $300. It also exempts up to $10,200 in unemployment benefits received in 2020 from federal income taxes for households making less than $150,000.
• The bill provides $350 billion for new Coronavirus Relief Funds for states, localities, the U.S. Territories, and the Tribal Governments, to help keep critical workers on the job. Under this bill:
  • Greensboro will receive $56 million.
  • Winston Salem will receive $55 million.
  • High Point will receive $23 million.
  • Guilford County will receive $104 million.
  • Forsyth County will receive $74 million.
• Makes the Child Tax Credit fully refundable and increases its size for 2021: This bill makes the child tax credit fully refundable for 2021 and increases the annual amount from the current $2,000 per child to $3,000 per child ($3,600 for a child under age 6). Currently, because the child tax credit is not fully refundable, there are 27 million American children who do not receive the full value of the current $2,000 tax credit because their parents do not earn enough money.
• Provides over $20 Billion to establish a national COVID-19 vaccination program and improve the administration and distribution of vaccinations, including:   
  • Providing $7.5 billion for the CDC to prepare, promote, distribute, monitor, and track COVID-19 vaccines.
  • Providing $7.5 billion for FEMA to establish vaccination sites across the country.
  • A FEMA-supported mass vaccination site will open in Greensboro on March 10. Learn more about that site here.
  • Providing $1 billion for the CDC to undertake a vaccine awareness and engagement campaign.
• Provides $26 Billion for emergency rental assistance to help struggling families continue to have a safe place to live during this pandemic.
• Makes key investments in food security: In response to persistent hunger in communities across the country, this bill helps combat increasing food insecurity with key investments in SNAP, WIC, Pandemic EBT and other critical nutrition assistance, including:
  • Extends SNAP maximum benefits by 15 percent (through September 30, 2021);
  • Provides $1.1 billion in additional SNAP administrative funds to states to help meet the demand of increased caseloads and $25 million to improve the state SNAP online pilot programs; and
  • Allocates $800 million for WIC – supporting low-income women and infants – and temporarily boosts the value of WIC Cash Value Vouchers for vulnerable mothers and their children; and
  • Secures $37 million to cover food shortfalls in the Commodity Supplemental Food Program which seeks to improve the health and nutrition of low-income Americans over 60 years old through access to nutritious food.
• Provide nearly $130 billion to help K-12 schools re-open safely:  This bill makes nearly $130 billion available to states and school districts for immediate and long-term relief so they can work with public health experts to safely re-open schools and make up for lost time in the classroom. This includes:
  • Repairing ventilation systems, reducing class sizes and implementing social distancing guidelines, purchasing personal protective equipment, and hiring support staff to care for students’ health and well-being.    
  • Ensures 20 percent of the funding that schools receive must be reserved to address and remediate learning loss among students.

• Includes funding to support colleges and universities: This bill includes nearly $40 billion for institutions of higher education to help make up for lost revenue due to the pandemic. Requires institutions to dedicate at least half of their funding for emergency financial aid grants to students to help prevent hunger, homelessness and other hardships facing students as a result of the pandemic.

• Broadband: helping to bridge the digital divide by providing $7.6 Billion to expand internet connectivity to students and communities, including by:
  • Reimbursing schools and libraries – central points for connectivity in many communities – to purchase equipment such as hotspots, internet service, and computers on behalf of students and patrons. This equipment is essential for homework when in-person classes resume, as well as for hybrid and remote learning.
  • Ensuring schools and libraries can quickly access this critical funding by relying on the Federal Communications Commission and its E-rate program to administer the funds equitably.

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