American Rescue Plan Highlights

The ARP provides:

• $195.3 billion in recovery funding to states, with a minimum of $500 million per state, and additional funding available based on percentage of unemployed residents

• $20 billion to tribal governments

• $4.5 billion to U.S. territories

The funding can be spent to respond to COVID-19 recovery, including aid to impacted industries and essential workers and employers, fiscal revenue capture, and investments in water, sewer, and broadband infrastructure (SEC. 9901).

The ARP provides an additional $10 billion, with a minimum of $100 million per state, territory, and tribal government, to carry out capital projects that enable work, education, and health monitoring in response to COVID-19, including remote options (SEC. 604).

The ARP extends Pandemic Unemployment Assistance of $300 per week per claimant in addition to state benefits through September 6, 2021 (SEC. 9011). Additionally, the ARP provides $2 billion for detecting and preventing fraud, promoting equitable access, and ensuring timely payment of benefits (SEC. 9032).

Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)

The ARP adds $1.15 billion to SNAP funding (SEC. 1101), with an additional $25 million for technology improvements including online purchasing, electronic benefit transfers (EBT), and mobile technologies (SEC. 1102).

Women Infants and Children (WIC)

The ARP adds $390 million toward modernizing WIC, including outreach and waivers to increase participation in WIC (SEC. 1106).

Rental Assistance

The ARP provides $21.55 billion toward rental assistance, with allocations for the territories, administration and oversight, and $2.5 billion for high-need grantees through the U.S Department of the Treasury (SEC. 3201).

Emergency Housing Vouchers

The ARP provides $5 billion toward Emergency Housing Vouchers through the U.S Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to support families and individuals that are experiencing homelessness, are at risk of homelessness, or are fleeing domestic violence, sexual assault, or trafficking (SEC. 3202)

Rural Housing Assistance

The ARP provides $100 million toward rural housing through the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) (SEC. 3203).

Homelessness & Supportive Services

The ARP adds $5 billion towards supporting people experiencing homelessness through rental assistance, housing counseling and shelters via HUD (SEC. 3205).

Homeowner Assistance Fund

The ARP establishes a new $9.96 billion Homeowner Assistance Fund at the U.S. Department of the Treasury to assist homeowners in paying mortgages, reducing interest rates or principal, utility costs including broadband, insurance, and homeowner or condo association fees (SEC. 3206).

Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP)

The ARP adds $4.5 billion to the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) (SEC. 2911).

Water Assistance

The ARP provides $500 million toward assisting low-income households with paying for drinking water and waste water services by providing funding toward owners or operators of public water and treatment systems (SEC 2912).

Child Care and Development Block Grants

The ARP adds $14.99 billion for states, territories, and Tribal governments to provide child care assistance to healthcare, emergency, and essential workers (SEC. 2201).

Child Care Stabilization

The ARP adds $23.975 billion to provide subgrants for child care agencies and providers to pay for personnel, rent, personal protective equipment and supplies, and mental health support for children and employees (SEC. 2202).

Head Start

The ARP provides an additional $1 billion toward Head Start, which will be available as one-time grants based on the number of enrolled children (SEC. 2203).

Home Visiting Programs

The ARP adds $150 million toward Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV), including bolstering virtual home visits through training, digital service delivery, and acquisition of devices and connectivity for staff or families (SEC. 9101).

Child Tax Credit (CTC)

The ARP increases the CTC for eligible families to $3000 for each child age 6-17 and $3600 for each child under age six. The ARP directs for advance payment of the credit as well as an online portal to allow filers to share and edit information with the IRS pertaining to their CTC (SEC. 9611).

Child Dependent Care Tax Credit (CDTC)

The ARP increases the amounts that families can be reimbursed for child care while working to $8,000 for one child and $16,000 for two or more children (SEC. 9631).

Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC)

The ARP expanded eligibility for the EITC by raising the minimum income to $21,000 from $16,000 for low-income adults without children (SEC. 9621).

In addition to the recovery and capital projects funding, the ARP bolsters the FCC’s E-Rate program. The ARP provides $7.17 billion toward reimbursement to schools and libraries for devices and connectivity, including for home learning through the Emergency Connectivity Fund(SEC. 7402). It is expected that the forthcoming American Jobs Plan will provide further resources to strengthen broadband.

United States Digital Service (USDS)

The ARP adds $200 million for the USDS (SEC. 4010).

Tech Modernization

The ARP adds $1 billion to the Technology Modernization Fund (SEC. 4011) and $150 million to the Federal Citizen Services Fund (SEC. 4012) at the General Services Administration (GSA).

Cybersecurity

The ARP adds $650 million toward risk mitigation at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) (SEC. 4009).