Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 (CAA2021)
On December 21, 2020, Congress passed the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 (CAA2021) which provides $600 of direct payments to individuals ($1200 for couples), $300 of extended unemployment benefits and more than $300 billion in aid for small businesses. The challenging and long-awaited bill provides a COVID-19 relief package of $1.4 trillion to fund the government agencies through September 2021.
The new stimulus legislation includes the following provisions:
Economic Impact Payments
Individuals earning less than $75,000 annually will receive $600 each. Married couples making up to $150,000 annually could receive $1,200. Also, families with children will be eligible for $600 per child.
Weekly Unemployment Payments
Unemployment benefits program, which ended in July, will be extended through March 14, 2021. All unemployed workers will receive $300 per week. This legislation also extends the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program, with expanded aid to the self-employed, non-traditional and gig-workers, and the Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation Program which provides additional weeks of federal unemployment benefits after they’ve exhausted state benefits.
Paycheck Protection Program Loans (PPP Loans)
CAA2021 will provide $284 billion to the US Small Business Association for the second round of PPP (or PPP2). The Paycheck Protection Program helped businesses to keep their employees on payroll. This new bill will expand eligibility for PPP to include nonprofits, tourism marketing and local media. For more information about PPP Loans, click here
Extension of Eviction Moratorium and Rental Assistance
The bill provides $25 billion in the Emergency rental assistance fund and an extension of national eviction moratorium through Jan 31, 2021.
Child Care Assistance
This program will provide $10 billion to Child Care Development Block Grant to assist families with the child care costs and to minimize costs for child care providers.
Nutrition Assistance Program
Additional funding of $13 billion will be provided for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program for emergency food assistance including a 15% increase for six months.
Support for Education Institution
The support package includes $82 billion for education institutions out of which $54 billion will be allocated to pre K-12 schools, $23 billion to colleges and universities, $4 billion to a Governors Emergency Education Relief Fund and $1 billion to Native American schools.
Health Care Assistance
$22 billion of funding will be provided for health-related expenses incurred by State and local governments
Transportation Assistance
$45 billion from the second stimulus will go towards the transportation industry including $16 billion for airlines, $14 billion for transit agencies, $10 billion for state highways and $1 billion for Amtrak.
Broadband Expansion
To support better connectivity, $7 billion of funding will be provided to support broadband expansion.
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