American Rescue Plan

OnMarch 10, the House passed and sent to the President's desk the American Rescue Plan, a sweeping relief package that will save lives and livelihoods as our country continues to face the COVID-19 pandemic. The legislation will crush the virus and get the economy moving by speeding vaccinations, putting money in pockets, children in schools, and people in jobs.

Economists estimate that the plan will create 7.5 million jobs and bring the economy back to near full employment in a little over 12 months, which would have taken at least three years without the new legislation.

Vaccines in Arms

• The American Rescue Plan provides $275 million to Illinois to speed up the distribution of vaccines and set up community vaccination centers.
• It also provides $1.5 billion to Illinois for testing, tracing, and mitigation efforts to fight the spread of COVID-19 and provide PPE to frontline health care workers.

Money in Pockets

• Delivers another round of relief checks to adults with incomes up to $80,000 and families with incomes up to $160,000. Most adults and dependent children will receive $1,400 each. This newly applies to dependent adult children because of a change Rep. Underwood advocated for.
• It includes legislation introduced by Rep. Underwood, the Health Care Affordability Act, to put money back in families' pockets by reducing health care costs. It will
  • Increase the generosity of premium tax credits across all income levels, eliminating premiums for people at the lowest income levels and reducing premiums for millions of Americans;
  • Expand eligibility for premium tax credits to people with incomes above 400% of the federal poverty level (FPL), guaranteeing that anyone who buys Marketplace; insurance can purchase a plan for 8.5% of their income or less;
  • Eliminate premiums for people who receive UI in 2021.
• Increases the Child Tax Credit for 2021 from $2,000 per child to $3,600 per child under age 6 and $3,000 per child under age 18. This applies to single filers earning up to $75,000, head of household filers earning up to $112,500, and joint filers earning up to $150,000 and is refundable, meaning families will receive it as a direct payment even if they do not owe taxes this year.
  • To ensure families receive immediate relief, starting in July, the IRS will distribute half of the credit via direct payments. This means a family claiming the full expanded credit could receive $250 a month per child from July to December 2021, and then would receive the remainder as a credit on their 2021 tax return.
  • The expanded Child Tax Credit will benefit nearly 9 in 10 Illinois children and lift over 150,000 Illinois children out of poverty.
• Keeps the weekly federal unemployment benefit at $300 per week through September 6 and extends the Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation (FPUC) program. The law also exempts the first $10,200 in unemployment benefits received in 2020 from federal income taxes for households making less than $150,000.
• It also fixes a glitch in eligibility for recipients of Illinois' pandemic unemployment assistance program, restoring payments to workers who had lost them in early March.
• Furthermore, the legislation will help homeowners struggling to afford their housing as a result of the coronavirus pandemic by providing by providing $10 billion to a fund providing direct assistance with mortgage payments, property taxes, property insurance, utilities, and other housing related costs.

Children in Schools

• The American Rescue Plan invests nearly $130 billion directly in K-12 education to help schools operate safely and make up for lost learning time. IL-14 school districts will receive approximately $169 million, specified below.
• It provides an estimated $1.3 billion to support Illinois institutions of higher education and help their students cope with the financial strain caused by COVID-19.
• It also includes $40 billion to stabilize the child care system and make child care more affordable for families.

People in Jobs

• The American Rescue Plan provides crucial support to help the hardest-hit small businesses keep their doors open with $15 billion in Economic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDL) grants, expanded Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) eligibility and an additional $7.25 billion in funding, $29 billion for a Restaurant Revitalization Fund to support struggling restaurants and bars, and additional resources to help small and disadvantaged businesses navigate and access COVID relief programs.
• Continues to support popular programs to support non-profits stay open and keep their employees on payroll.
• It also provides resources to protect the jobs of first responders, frontline public health workers, teachers, transit workers and other essential workers, who all Americans depend on by providing funding to municipalities to cover pandemic-related costs.

Questions about how the American Rescue Plan Helps You

How big are the direct payments and who gets them?

*funding estimates were prepared by Congressional Research Service . The list of eligible governments and their respective populations was generated from the 2019 City and Town dataset from the Census Bureau, which includes data on both "incorporated areas" and "minor civil divisions. In all cases, the list of nonentitlement governments intends to accurately capture the total population eligible for assistance in each state, rather than the total number of governments eligible for assistance, as the total state population is used to calculate the amount every nonentitlement government will receive.

The list of "metro cities" as defined in the proposal and the allocation amounts provided to those cities were generated from the FY2020 CDBG entitlement awards distributed to those cities as shown on the HUD website. Select city governments that qualify but have chosen not to participate in the CDBG entitlement program have been added, as that information has been made available, with allocation amounts estimated by CRS using the limited data available for those cities. Metro Cities are demarcated with an asterisk *

Please note that these estimated numbers may shift as more recent data becomes available.

Estimates also do not account for the cap on nonentitlement assistance equal to 75% of the government's previous annual budget.

Funding for local school districts

Estimated funding for higher education