After One Year of COVID-19, the American Rescue Plan is Restoring Hope Again

It’s been a little over a year since this virus first brought our nation and the world to a standstill, a year since many of us packed up our offices and started working from home, and a year since we’ve been able to hug elderly parents or travel to visit family. 

More than 29 million Americans have confirmed infections and over 530,000 of our fellow citizens have died. This pandemic also crippled our economy and tens of millions of Americans lost their jobs, their livelihoods, and even their homes. Too many families have spent the past year worried about how to pay the bills, put food on the table and keep a roof over their heads. 

But now, at long last, there is some light at the end of the tunnel. Safe and effective vaccines are being distributed by the millions every day. And for those families that continue to struggle financially, help is on the way. 

Earlier this month, Congress passed and President Biden signed into law the American Rescue Plan, a COVID relief package bold enough to meet the scale of this crisis, the impact of which will be felt for generations.

The American Rescue Plan will put money in your pocket by sending another round of $1,400 direct relief checks for individuals who make less than $75,000, and $2,800 for couples who make less than $150,000. That’s 90% of Americans. And families will receive an additional $1,400 per dependent, which is great news for students and people with disabilities. A family of four could already have a direct deposit of $5,600 in their bank accounts.

It will extend the $300 per week federal unemployment support – and importantly, you won’t have to pay federal taxes on the first $10,200 of 2020 unemployment income. This plan also extends the Mixed Earner Unemployment Compensation program, which I have been fighting for to help thousands of my constituents who work as freelancers, contract workers or in the gig economy.

The American Rescue Plan will also cut child poverty in half by giving parents $3,000 – $3,600 per child this year. On average, 28% of children in our community live in poverty, and these payments will make a meaningful difference in their health and education outcomes, as well as reducing long-term costs on the criminal justice and child protection systems.

It will provide billions in state and local funding to safely reopen our schools, and keep them open – including over $50 million to Glendale Unified School District.

And it will provide tens of billions to federal, state and local governments to distribute, administer and track vaccinations, so we can finally bring an end to this pandemic, as well as funding for vaccine development and COVID-19 testing and  contact tracing. As President Biden recently announced, states and cities will have enough supply to expand vaccine eligibility to any American adult who wants one by May 1. If we continue to follow public health guidance and get our shots, there’s a brighter summer ahead for all of us.

We have a long road to recovery ahead of us but the path is now clearer than it’s been in months. The passage of this bold, ambitious and comprehensive American Rescue Plan gives me hope that we are on track to not only return to normalcy, but to build back better.