President-elect, Joe Biden, on Thursday revealed more details of his $1.9 trillion coronavirus rescue package for households and businesses impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States.
In the proposal called the American Rescue Plan, several stimulus measures were detailed in the hope it would mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on families and businesses.
Below are the highlights of the Rescue Plan
- Direct payments of $1,400 to most Americans, bringing the total relief to $2,000, including December’s $600 payments
- Increasing the federal, per-week unemployment benefit to $400 and extending it through the end of September
- Increasing the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour
- Extending the eviction and foreclosure moratoriums until the end of September
- $350 billion in state and local government aid
- $170 billion for K-12 schools and institutions of higher education
- $50 billion toward Covid-19 testing
- $20 billion toward a national vaccine program in partnership with states, localities and tribes
- Making the Child Tax Credit fully refundable for the year and increasing the credit to $3,000 per child ($3,600 for a child under age 6).
Speaking on Thursday, Joe Biden, said “Tonight, I lay out my first step, the American Rescue Plan that will tackle the pandemic and get direct financial assistance and relief to Americans who need it the most.”
“Next month, in my first appearance before a joint session of Congress I will lay out my ‘build back better’ recovery plan,” Biden said. “It will make historic investments in infrastructure, manufacturing, innovation, and research and development in clean energy.”
“Our ‘rescue and recovery’ plan is a path forward with both serious of purpose and a clear plan, with transparency and accountability, with a call for unity that is equally necessary,” he said.
“It’s not hard to see that we’re in the middle of a once-in-several-generations economic crisis with a once-in-several-generations public health crisis. A crisis of deep human suffering is in plain sight and there’s no time to waste,” Biden said. “We have to act, and we have to act now.”
