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Charlotte NC

Rep. Adams Votes for American Rescue Plan

March 10, 2021

Bill heads to President Biden's desk

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Congresswoman Alma Adams (NC-12) voted for final passage of H.R. 1319, the American Rescue Plan Act, landmark, life-saving legislation that will provide urgently-needed resources to defeat the COVID-19 virus, put vaccines in people's arms, money into families' pockets, children safely back into classrooms and people back to work. This legislation will now go to President Biden's desk for his signature.

"The American people can't wait any longer for relief," said Rep. Adams. "This bill is a transformative package that will protect families from COVID-19, protect our workforce from the economic effects of the pandemic, provide survival checks to the American people, and make sure our students can go back to school safely. Additionally, and perhaps most importantly, the American Rescue Plan Actwill cut child poverty in half and will lift nearly 12 million people out of poverty. As the child of a single mother who cleaned houses just so we could scrape by, I cannot express how important that is for the future of our children, and the future of our country."

The Biden American Rescue Plan will save lives and livelihoods:

  • Put Vaccines in Arms: The plan will mount a national vaccination program that includes setting up community vaccination sites nationwide and addressing disparities facing communities of color. It will also take complementary measures to combat the virus, including scaling up testing and tracing, addressing shortages of personal protective equipment and other critical supplies, investing in high-quality treatments and addressing health care disparities.
  • Put Money in People's Pockets: The plan finishes the job on the President's promise to provide $2,000 in direct assistance to households across America with checks of $1,400 per person, following the $600 down payment enacted in December. The plan will also provide direct housing assistance, nutrition assistance for 40 million Americans, expand access to safe and reliable child care and affordable health care, extend unemployment insurance so that 18 million American workers can pay their bills and support 27 million children with an expanded Child Tax Credit and more than 17 million low-wage workers through an improved Earned Income Tax Credit. Further, this historic bill includes debt forgiveness for farmers of color who have been among those hardest hit by the economic crisis, modeled after Rep. Adams' and Sen. Booker's Justice for Black Farmers Act.
  • Put Children Safely Back in School: The plan delivers $170 billion for education and $45 billion for child care providers. This includes a $130 billion investment in K-12 school re-opening and making up for lost time in the classroom, with funds that can be used for such things as reducing class sizes, modifying spaces so that students and teachers can socially distance, improving ventilation, implementing more mitigation measures, providing personal protective equipment and providing summer school or other support for students that help make up lost learning time this year. The plan also provides more than $40 billion for higher education.
  • Put People Back In Jobs: The plan will provide crucial support for the hardest-hit small businesses, especially those owned by entrepreneurs from racial and ethnic backgrounds that have experienced systemic discrimination, with EIDL grants, expanded PPP eligibility and more. The plan also 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.

The Act includes appropriations for local municipalities. North Carolina state government would receive an estimated $5.276 billion in federal funds and a total of $8.9 billion, including $1.31 billion for child care, $25 million for Head Start, $3.60 billion for K-12 education, and $1.14 billion for Higher Ed.

Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools would receive an estimated $347 million in federal funding, Mecklenburg County would receive an estimated $215 million. Mecklenburg County cities and towns would receive the following estimated allocations from the American Rescue Plan Act.

  • Charlotte, $149 million
  • Cornelius, $8.85 million
  • Davidson, $3.82 million
  • Huntersville, $17.0 million
  • Matthews, $9.70 million
  • Mint Hill, $8.08 million
  • Pineville, $2.64 million

The American Rescue Plan is strongly supported by a large majority of the American people – including 60 percent of Republicans, bipartisan state and local leaders, national education groups, trade unions and advocacy organizations and hundreds of businesses and chambers of commerce. Economists agree that the American Rescue Plan's targeted, evidence-based action is needed – both for struggling families and for the American economy. The legislation's provisions will generate $1.25 for every $1 of spending, will cut child poverty in half and will lift nearly 12 million people out of poverty.

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