A $600 direct payment, enhanced unemployment benefits and more. This is what we know so far about what’s in and what’s not in the $900 billion bill
There were several changes made from a proposal put forward nearly two weeks ago by a bipartisan group of lawmakers. Direct stimulus checks were brought in at the last minute. Direct aid to states and liability protections for companies were left out.
The full bill text had not been released as of Sunday night. Here’s what we know so far from summaries released by Democratic and Republican leadership:
Stimulus checks
Eligible families would receive an additional $600 per child — which is $100 more than Congress gave families in the first round of relief last spring.
Unemployment benefits
The jobless would receive a $300 weekly federal enhancement in benefits for 11 weeks, from the end of December through mid-March under the deal. The amount is half of the earlier federal boost, which ran out at the end of July.
The Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program expands jobless benefits to gig workers, freelancers, independent contractors, the self-employed and certain people affected by the coronavirus. The Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation program provides an additional 13 weeks of payments to those who exhaust their regular state benefits.
Both programs would close to new applicants in mid-March and then phase out in early April for existing claimants.
The final agreement is less generous than the original bipartisan deal that was released earlier this month. It would have provided 16 weeks of enhanced payments and pandemic benefits.
Small business loans
It specifically designates $12 billion for minority-owned and very small businesses.
Unlike in the CARES Act, this bill carves out $15 billion for live venues, independent movie theaters and cultural institutions. It also expands eligibility to more nonprofits as well as local newspapers, TV and radio broadcasters.
Funding for schools and child care
An additional $10 billion is included to support child care providers that have struggled because of the pandemic.
Rental assistance
The bill would extend until January 31 the eviction protection set to expire at the end of the year. It also would provide $25 billion in rental assistance for individuals who lost their source of income during the pandemic.
Nutrition assistance
The deal would raise SNAP benefits by 15% for six months but would not expand eligibility. This is more generous that the original bipartisan agreement from earlier in December, which called for a four-month increase.
Democrats have advocated for augmenting the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, as food stamps are formally known, since the pandemic began, but the provision never made it into prior relief packages.
The bill would also expand the Pandemic-EBT program to families with children under age 6, deeming them “enrolled” in child care and eligible for benefits. It now provides money to low-income families with school-age children in lieu of the free and reduced-price meals they would have received in school.
The deal also would send $400 million to food banks and food pantries through The Emergency Food Assistance Program.
It would also provide $175 million for nutrition services for seniors, such as Meals on Wheels, and $13 million for the Commodity Supplemental Food Program, which serves more than 700,000 older Americans monthly.
Vaccine funding
The agreement would provide $20 billion for the purchase of vaccines so they can be available at no charge for those who need it, as well as another $8 billion for vaccine distribution.
It also would give states $20 billion to assist with testing.
What’s not in the bill — state and local government funding
The provision has been among the most contentious of the negotiations. House Democrats had provided $875 billion in the relief bill that passed the chamber in May to help states and local governments struggling with lower tax revenues due to the pandemic.
But Republicans have resisted allocating additional aid beyond the $150 billion provided in Congress’ $2 trillion relief bill in March, which could only be used for coronavirus-related expenses. GOP lawmakers have said they don’t want to bail out states that have mismanaged their finances.
State and local officials blasted lawmakers in recent days when it became clear that direct aid was falling by the wayside.
In a joint statement Sunday night, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer pointed out that the final agreement would provide emergency resources for schools, $27 billion for state highways, struggling transit agencies, Amtrak and airports, and $22 billion for health-related expenses of state, local, tribal and territorial government.
In addition, the agreement calls for providing $2 billion to support intercity buses.
State and local officials had also asked to be able to use some of the funding to plug budget shortfalls.
CNN’s Manu Raju and Clare Foran contributed reporting.
