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Statement on American Rescue Plan

Posted
Press Releases, Health Care, Higher Education, Workforce & Finances, National

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 10, 2021
Contact: Juan Ramiro Sarmiento
(785) 760-6567 | juan.sarmiento@younginvincibles.org

Statement on American Rescue Plan

(Washington, DC) — Today, Congress passed the American Rescue Plan, which has earned overwhelming bipartisan support from the American people and will deliver crucial economic relief to communities, essential workers, small businesses, and state and local governments. The American Rescue Plan heads to President Biden for signature.

In response, Jesse Barba, Director of External Affairs for Young Invincibles released the following statement:

“Today lawmakers finally took unprecedented action to help American families weather the ongoing storm of the Covid-19 pandemic. This level of relief was needed months ago, and we are proud to see the new leadership in Washington making this legislation an immediate priority. The American Rescue Plan is a bold and critical piece of legislation that will help young people survive beyond this public health and economic crisis.

Young people have suffered disproportionately in recent months. They face higher than average unemployment rates, significant increases in mental health challenges, and considerable challenges in completing their academic studies. Without targeted support, young people would be sidelined yet again. Passage of the American Rescue Plan, although not perfect, will make a real difference in safely reopening our schools, extending unemployment and economic relief payments, and expanding health care access.

We thank the Members of Congress who supported this recovery bill, but our work is far from done. We will continue fighting to raise the minimum wage, ensure people can access adequate mental health resources, expand Earned Income Tax Credit eligibility permanently, demand more state and local aid, and guarantee access to health care is expanded equitably. We can no longer neglect the essential things that allow young people to thrive.”

The American Rescue Plan includes several key provisions:

  • Provide working families a $1,400 per-person check. More than 85% of households will receive direct payments in this bill–larger than the stimulus checks in the CARES Act. And, for the first time, adult dependents are entitled to a check as well.
  • Extend current unemployment insurance benefits and eligibility to September 6, 2021–saving 11 million Americans from losing benefits starting in about a week, and provide a $300 per week supplement.
  • Support institutions of higher education and their students by providing $40 billion in funding to help students meet basic needs like housing, food, child care, and health care. These emergency financial aid grants are urgently needed for students who have experienced significant financial pressure from the economic crisis.
  • Help Americans stay in their homes by providing emergency aid to cover back rent. In addition, the bill provides assistance to help struggling homeowners catch up with their mortgage payments and utility costs through the Homeowners Assistance Fund.
  • Expand health coverage and lower premiums for millions of lower- and middle-income families enrolled in the ACA marketplaces, in Medicaid, and those who lost job-based coverage during the pandemic. A family of four making $90,000 could see their monthly premium come down by $200 per month.
  • Eliminate tax liability for student debt cancelation. As more than 40 million Americans continue to shoulder more than $1.7 trillion in student loan debt, removing canceled loan debt from consideration as taxable income through 2025 should clear the way for bold student debt cancelation by the Biden administration.
  • Increase the Earned Income Tax Credit for 17 million workers by as much as $1,000. The top occupations that will benefit are cashiers, food preparers and servers, and home health aides – frontline workers who have helped their communities get through the crisis.
  • Support essential community services by funding $350 billion in direct financial assistance to state and local governments. These funds will help stabilize balance sheets and mitigate drastic cuts to essential state and local government services.
  • Invest in children and child care. The per-child maximum benefit will increase for most families by up to 80 percent, benefitting more than 90 percent of children nationwide. Direct payments of up to $300 per month will help families with children have a baseline of financial support to meet basic needs. In addition, the bill provides $24 billion for child care providers and approximately $15 billion for child care agencies–funds to help stabilize an essential service sector for reopening the economy that shed 166,000 jobs in the first eight months of the pandemic.
  • Strengthen protections for student veterans. The bill puts in place a process to close a loophole in for-profit college regulations that allows them not to count veterans’ educational benefits against a maximum of 90 percent of their funding coming from the federal government. Closing the 90-10 loophole will help strengthen accountability in the for-profit sector and discourage predatory recruitment of student veterans.

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