Breaking down the Coronavirus Relief from Congress

3/27/2020

The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act
(Passed by Congress, signed into law 3/27/20)

*Note: Maine still has to work with the Feds on implementing some of these often complex programs and expansion of benefits. It's not immediate. As soon as we have confirmation of when and how to take advantage of the bellow, we will send out info.

For families

Unemployment benefits

An additional $600 unemployment benefit, on top of the current state maximum payment of $431 per week
An additional 13 weeks of federally-funded unemployment benefits, on top of the 26 weeks already provided in Maine
Expansion of unemployment program to part-time workers, self-employed workers, sole-proprietors, and gig economy workers to access unemployment benefits

Direct cash payments

$1,200 to anyone whose adjusted gross income is under $75,000 per year ($2,400 for married couples earning under $150,000), plus $500 per child under age 17
Reduced payments for those earning between $75,000 and $99,000 per year
Expected to sent by April 6

Nutrition

$15.5 billion in additional funding for supplemental nutrition programs to ensure seniors and children receive the food they need
$8.8 billion in additional funding for child nutrition programs in order to ensure children receive meals while school is not in session
$450 million to provide funds critical to food banks

Daily life and housing

$50 million for legal aid needs for low-income Americans facing job losses, eviction, domestic violence and consumer scams resulting from the coronavirus crisis
$900 million to help lower income households heat their homes
$200 million for shelter, food and supportive services to individuals and families in sudden economic crisis
$425 million to increase access to mental health services in our communities through community behavioral health clinics, suicide prevention programs, and emergency response
$4 billion for eviction prevention activities including rapid rehousing, housing counseling, and rental deposit assistance will mitigate the adverse impacts of the pandemic on working families and individuals and families who are homeless or at risk of homelessness
$3 billion to help more than 4.5 million low-income households currently assisted by HUD to safely remain in their homes or access temporary housing assistance in response to economic and housing disruptions caused by COVID-19
$1.935 billion to allow public housing agencies to keep over 3.2 million Section 8 voucher and public housing households stably housed
$65 million for housing for the elderly and persons with disabilities for rental assistance, service coordinators, and support services
$100 million to help ensure rural Americans have access to broadband to make telehealth and working from home more accessible
$3.5 billion to allow child care programs to maintain critical operations, including meeting emergency staffing needs and ensuring first responders and health care workers can access child care while they respond to the pandemic

For small business owners

Direct assistance

$14 billion for the Commodity Credit Corporation, which helps stabilize the price of agricultural products, like the Maine potato industry
$9.5 billion to assist specialty crop producers; producers who support local food systems such as farmers markets, schools, and restaurants; and livestock producers, including dairy
$1.5 billion to help rebuild impacted industries such as tourism and manufacturing supply chains
$50 million to help small- and medium-sized manufacturers recover by finding value within the supply chain and expanding markets
$300 million to help fishermen, including aquaculture, struggling due to disappearing economic markets caused by the novel coronavirus pandemic
$17 billion for the SBA to cover six months of payments for small businesses with existing SBA loans. Rent, mortgage and utility costs now eligible for SBA loan forgiveness

Loan assistance

$562 million to support loans to businesses that need financial support during this difficult time. These loans will help businesses keep their doors open and pay their employees
$10 billion in direct grants for businesses that do not qualify for SBA disaster loans, and $17 billion to have SBA step in and make six months of principle and interest payments for all SBA backed business loans. All these measures combined will relieve financial stress from struggling businesses and inject much needed capital into the economy.

Assistance to retain employees

Funding to help administer the new tax credits for paid leave, which allow employers to use money that otherwise would have been paid in payroll taxes to pay employees on sick leave or paid family leave related to COVID-19

For state-level recovery

$1.25 billion to Maine in 2020 to use for expenditures incurred due to the public health emergency with respect to COVID-19 in the face of revenue declines
$45 billion to provide for the immediate needs of state, local, and tribal governments to protect citizens and help recover from the overwhelming effects of COVID-19 by funding medical response, personal protective equipment, National Guard deployment, coordination of logistics, safety measures, and community services
$100 million for personal protective equipment for our first responders
$150 million to state arts and humanities agencies to provide grants and support arts organizations, museums, libraries, and other organizations during the coronavirus crisis
$10 billion in Federal assistance is directed to help publicly-owned, commercial airports to address the COVID-19 crisis
$25 billion is provided to public transit operators to protect public health and safety while ensuring transportation access to jobs, medical treatment, food, and other essential services remain available during the COVID-19 response
$5 billion for the Community Development Block Grant program to enable states, counties, and cities to rapidly respond to COVID-19 and the economic and housing impacts caused by it, including by expanding community health facilities, child care centers, food banks, and senior services
$453 million to provide aid to tribal governments through welfare assistance and social service programs, including assistance to tribal members affected by the coronavirus crisis and to expand public safety and emergency response capabilities

Workforce development

$360 million to invest in programs that provide training and supportive services for dislocated workers, seniors, migrant farmworkers, and homeless veterans
$1 billion in Community Services Block Grants to help communities address the consequences of increasing unemployment and economic disruption

Public safety

$850 million for state and local police departments and jails to meet local needs, including purchase of personal protective equipment and other needed medical items and to support overtime for officers on the front lines
$1.4 billion for deployments of the National Guard to sustain up to 20,000 members of the National Guard, under the direction of the governors of each state, for the next six months in order to support state and local response efforts

Elections

$400 million for states to help prepare for the 2020 elections. Funding can be used, for example, to increase the ability to vote by mail, expand early voting and online registration, and increase the safety of voting in-person by providing additional voting facilities and more poll-workers

Education

$30.750 billion for an Education Stabilization Fund for states, school districts and institutions of higher education for costs related to coronavirus
$13.5 billion is available for formula-grants to states, which will then distribute 90 percent of funds to local educational agencies to use for coronavirus-response activities, such as planning for and coordinating during long-term school closures; purchasing educational technology to support online learning for all students served by the local educational agency
Governors in each state will receive a share of $3 billion to allocate at their discretion for emergency support grants to local educational agencies to support the ability to continue to provide educational services to students, to support on-going operations, and to provide emergency support through grants to institutions of higher education serving students within the State
$14.250 billion for higher education emergency relief for institutions of higher education to defray expenses for institutions of higher education, such as lost revenue, technology costs associated with a transition to distance education, and grants to students for food, housing, course materials, technology, health care, and child care

For health care

COVID-19 health care response

$80 million for the Food and Drug Administration to address shortages of critical medicines, to conduct COVID-19 research, and to develop therapies and vaccines for COVID-19
$75 million for the National Science Foundation (NSF) to support research at molecular, cellular, physiological and ecological levels to better understand coronavirus genetics, modes of action, transmission, virulence and population dynamics at research institutions like The Jackson Laboratory
$200 million for the FCC Connected Care Pilot Program, which will support efforts of health care providers to address COVID-19 by using telehealth to connect with patients
Over $1 billion in critically needed resources to support the tribal health system during the pandemic
$1.5 billion to support States, locals, territories, and tribes in their efforts to conduct public health activities, including: purchase of personal protective equipment; laboratory testing to detect positive cases; and infection control and mitigation at the local level to prevent the spread of the virus
$100 billion for grants to hospitals, public entities, not-for-profit entities, and Medicare and Medicaid enrolled suppliers and institutional providers to cover unreimbursed health care related expenses or lost revenues attributable to COVID-19
At least $3.5 billion to advance construction, manufacturing, and purchase of vaccines and therapeutics
Funding to support a U.S.-sourced supply chain of vaccines, therapeutics, and small molecule active pharmaceutical ingredients
$185 million to support rural critical access hospitals, rural tribal health and telehealth programs, and poison control centers
$955 million to support nutrition programs, home and community based services, support for family caregivers, and expand oversight and protections for seniors and individuals with disabilities
$200 million to assist nursing homes with infection control and support states’ efforts to prevent the spread of coronavirus in nursing homes
$25 million to help improve distance learning and telemedicine in rural areas
$1 billion for the Department of Defense to invest in manufacturing capabilities that are key to increasing the production rate of personal protective equipment and medical equipment to meet the demand of healthcare workers
$1.5 billion for expansion of military hospitals and expeditionary hospital packages to alleviate the anticipated strain on both the military and civilian healthcare systems

Veterans health care

$15.85 billion in order to support an increase in demand for VA services specific to coronavirus
$590 million for VA to devote to supporting veterans at an increased risk of contracting coronavirus
$3.1 billion for VA to purchase, staff, and equip temporary sites of care and mobile treatment centers to deal with this pandemic. It further enhances the capability for telehealth visits, allowing more veterans to receive care from home, and for providers at home to continue to treat patients through technology
To strengthen VA’s response to the coronavirus pandemic and enable them to best treat veterans across the country, the bill includes provisions which allow VA to:
- Consider veterans and their families eligible for pensions and other income-dependent benefits, even if an emergency benefit paid by the government would have put them over the threshold
- Ensure that home health care workers have personal protective equipment and necessary equipment to protect veterans and themselves
- Continue providing payment to State Veterans Homes when residents are transferred to acute care due to COVID-19, regardless of their occupancy rate; and allow VA to provide any available personal protective equipment to state homes
- Support veterans with limb loss seeking prosthetic assistance at community providers rather than going to VA facilities during a pandemic
- Enter into agreements with telecommunications companies to provide broadband for veterans in support of providing telemental health care

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