Press Releases

Wexton Votes to Pass Sweeping COVID Relief Package

Washington, February 27, 2021

Washington, DC -- Today, Congresswoman Jennifer Wexton (D-VA) voted to pass the American Rescue Plan Act to deliver urgent relief to families and small businesses who are hurting and fund the public health response to COVID-19.

"The American Rescue Plan will fund a robust public health response to get us through this pandemic and deliver immediate aid to help families and small businesses in need and ensure a strong economic recovery on the other side," said Congresswoman Jennifer Wexton. "With this legislation, we will push forward with getting shots into the arms of every American, put money directly into the pockets of those who are hurting, ensure our kids can safely learn in their classrooms, and protect and restore jobs in our community. I will continue working with urgency to deliver the relief our district needs right now."

The American Rescue Plan Act will fund a robust public health response to the pandemic, deliver immediate, direct relief to families and small businesses in need, and enable schools to expand their reopenings and remain open safely. The legislation includes:

Funding the Public Health Response:

  • Over $20 billion for a coordinated national vaccination program to invest in the development and production of vaccines and get shots into the arms of Americans including through community vaccination centers and mobile units;
  • $51 billion investment to expand testing, contact tracing, and mitigation activities, including $10 billion to boost Defense Production Act funding for manufacturing to meet public health needs;
  • $50 billion for FEMA’s Disaster Relief Fund to reimburse states, localities, Tribes, and territories for ongoing COVID response and recovery activities;
  • $4 billion to expand behavioral and mental health services;
  • Support to hire 100,000 additional full-time employees in the public health workforce;
  • Funding for state strike teams to help nursing home facilities manage COVID outbreaks;
  • Providing states with the option to enroll uninsured individuals in Medicaid to receive free COVID testing, treatment, and vaccines, fully funded by the federal government;

Relief for Families and Small Businesses:

  • Direct $1,400 payments to eligible Americans;
  • Increased enhanced unemployment benefits from $300 to $400 a week and extension of the program through August 29, 2021;
  • Raising wages for at least 27 million Americans by gradually increasing the minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2025;
  • Relief for the hardest-hit small businesses, including:
    • Expanded Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) eligibility and funding;
    • $25 billion for a new Restaurant Revitalization Fund to provide assistance to small restaurants, bars, and craft beverage producers;
    • $15 billion for the Targeted Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) Advance program;
  • Historic expansions to tax credits for working families, including:
    • Expanding the Child Tax Credit to $3,000 per child ($3,600 for children under 6), and making it fully refundable and advanceable;
    • Enhancing the Earned Income Tax Credit for workers without children by nearly tripling the maximum credit and extending eligibility;
    • Expanding the Child and Dependent Tax Credit (CDCTC) to allow families to claim up to half of their child care expenses;
  • Expanded access to affordable health care by:
    • Reducing premiums for low- and middle-income families by increasing the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) premium tax credits for 2021 and 2022;
    • Supporting the continuation of employer-based health coverage by subsidizing COBRA coverage through the end of the fiscal year;
    • Creating health care subsidies for unemployed workers who are ineligible for COBRA;
  • $39 billion for child care providers through the Child Care and Development Block Grant Program to rescue the industry from collapse and to provide financial relief for families;
  • $26 billion for additional emergency rental and utility assistance programs plus $10 billion to help homeowners struggling to meet mortgage, property tax, utility, and other payments;
  • Measures to address the surge in hunger during the pandemic, including:
    • Continuing the 15% increase in SNAP benefits through September 30, 2021 and authorizing additional funding to meet the increased demand;
    • Investing $5 billion to expand the Pandemic-EBT (P-EBT) program to help low-income families access food assistance both during the school year and summer months and $800 million for the WIC program to support low-income women and infants;
  • $7.6 billion to help bridge the digital divide and support distance learning for students without a reliable internet connection;
  • Addressing the rise in domestic violence during the pandemic with $450 million to support survivors, including funding for rape crisis centers and programs to support survivors of family violence;
  • $13 billion for the Department of Veterans Affairs to provide health care services and other related supports for eligible veterans impacted by the pandemic, including suicide prevention, women’s health services, telehealth expansion, and medical facility improvements;

Aid to States, Localities, Schools, and Transit:

  • $350 billion for states, localities, Tribes, and territories to keep first responders, frontline health workers, and other public service employees safely on the job and avoid devastating cuts to critical services;
  • Nearly $130 billion to help schools meet Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines for safely returning students and teachers to the classroom and address lost learning time;
  • Almost $40 billion for institutions of higher learning to help make up for lost revenue and fund emergency financial aid grants to prevent hunger, homelessness, and other hardships that students may be facing during the pandemic;
  • $30 billion for transit systems to aid COVID response, particularly for payroll expenses and operating costs to maintain services safely;
  • $8 billion in emergency aid for airports, with a requirement to continue to retain at least 90% of their workforce through the end of the fiscal year; and
  • $15 billion to extend the Payroll Support Program through September 30, 2021 to prevent furloughs and layoffs of airline industry employees.

Virginia-10 Funding:

Under the legislation’s state and local funding, VA-10 is estimated to receive a total of $576.4 million and the Commonwealth of Virginia is estimated to receive nearly $3.8 billion. Under the plan’s school relief, the 10th District’s school systems are estimated to receive $333,957,000 with school systems across the commonwealth receiving nearly $2 billion total.

An updated breakdown of the estimated funding going to VA-10 counties, localities, and school districts can be found here.

If the American Rescue Plan Act is signed into law, it would reduce the poverty rate by 3.6%, below pre-pandemic levels, and lift nearly 12 million Americans out of poverty, as well as cut the child poverty rate in half.

More than half a million Americans have lost their lives to COVID. As the public health and economic crises continue, over 18 million Americans are receiving unemployment benefits, nearly 24 million Americans are going hungry with an estimated 12 million children living in households with food insecurity, up to 40 million Americans have struggled to pay rent during the pandemic and fear eviction, school closures threaten the education of countless millions of our children, and our most vulnerable communities are bearing the brunt of the crises as underlying health and economic inequities grow worse. 

A section-by-section summary on the bill can be found here.

The full text of the bill can be found here.

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