Costa Votes for American Rescue Plan: Relief on the Way for Struggling Americans, Local Communities

(WASHINGTON) Congressman Jim Costa (CA-16) released the following statement after the passage of the American Rescue Plan, President Biden's landmark legislation that will work to crush the COVID-19 virus, return children safely to the classroom, get vaccines to the people and provide financial relief to struggling Americans and local governments:

"Though the arrival of vaccines has improved, more needs to be done to give us hope for the future, as Americans are still hurting," said Costa. "We need to get money into the pockets of desperate small business owners and families, create a robust plan to open schools and fund local governments struggling to provide critical service to residents. This bill will do just that and I'm proud to support it."

The global coronavirus pandemic has had serious economic impacts: over 18 million Americans are receiving unemployment benefits, nearly 24 million Americans are going hungry, including 12 million children, and up to 40 million Americans can't afford to pay rent. School closures also threaten the education of millions of children and underlying health and economic equities continue to grow worse.

The American Rescue Plan addresses these problems with a multi-pronged approach to:

Provide financial relief to local communities

• Fresno, Madera, and Merced Counties, all of which are facing budget shortfalls, are estimated to receive more than $200 million dollars in local relief:
  • An estimated $195 million for Fresno County, $164 for city of Fresno
  • An estimated $31 million for Madera County, $21 million of city of Madera
  • An estimated $54 million for Merced County, $26 million for city of Merced
• The money is intended to help local governments continue providing vital services to residents;
• Help prevent job cuts to law enforcement and fire protection services.

Beat the virus and safely reopen schools

• Mount a national vaccination program that includes setting up community vaccination sites nationwide;
• Take complementary measures to combat the virus by scaling up testing and tracing, addressing personal protective equipment and other critical supply shortages, investing in high-quality treatments, and addressing health care disparities;
• Make the investments necessary to safely reopen schools.

Deliver immediate relief to working families bearing the brunt of the crisis

• Provide direct assistance to households across America with checks of $1,400 per person;
• Provide direct housing and nutrition assistance for 40 million Americans;
• Expand access to safe and reliable childcare and affordable health care;
• Extend and expand unemployment insurance, expand the Child Tax Credit and Earned Income Tax Credit;
• Give 27 million workers a raise by raising the federal minimum wage.

Support communities struggling with the economic fallout

• Provide crucial support for the hardest-hit small businesses, especially those that are minority owned, with EIDL grants, expanded PPP eligibility and more;
• Provides crucial resources to protect the jobs of first responders, frontline public health workers, teachers, transit workers and other essential workers that all Americans depend on;
• Provide $3.6 billion for food and farm worker protections and donations to food banks.

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