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Pappas Votes To Send Critical COVID-19 Relief to Granite Staters with American Rescue Plan

March 10, 2021

Today, Congressman Chris Pappas (NH-01), released the following statement after voting to pass the American Rescue Plan Act.

"After nearly a year of loss, suffering, and pain, help is on the way for our small businesses, workers, communities, and families throughout New Hampshire and across this country," said Congressman Chris Pappas (NH-01). "This widely bipartisan relief package will help us finally overcome this pandemic with direct support to those who need it most, help to small businesses to keep their lights on, aid to cities and towns to maintain critical services, extend unemployment assistance, rapidly expand our vaccinations and testing, and allow schools to reopen safely. It also looks to the future and provides badly needed support to help Granite Staters not only recover but rebuild their lives with expanded child tax credits, improvements to the Affordable Care Act, and help for families to get back on their feet and back in their homes. I urge President Biden to sign this legislation as soon as possible and get Granite Staters the help they need."

This package includes numerous provisions to provide relief for Granite Staters:

  • Provides direct assistance to Americans in need with an additional $1,400 in direct assistance per person. This plan also extends federal supplemental unemployment benefits to provide support for some self-employed and pandemic-affected individuals who do not qualify for regular state unemployment benefits.
  • Supports our communities by providing funding to the State of New Hampshire and to counties, cities, and towns to ensure frontline health care workers, public safety officials, and first responders are able to continue providing critical services to Granite Staters.
  • Accelerates vaccine distribution by providing over $20 billion to establish a national COVID-19 vaccination program. Additionally, it will help scale up COVID-19 testing, contact tracing and mitigation to slow the spread of COVID-19. This legislation also includes Congressman Pappas's bill to ensure that Medicaid beneficiaries can access COVID-19 treatment and vaccination for free.
  • Helps struggling small businesses by increasing the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) funding and expanding eligibility to ensure it reaches nonprofits of all sizes. It also supports small businesses by providing $15 billion for COVID-19 emergency grants through the Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) Program.
  • Revitalizes the restaurant industry with a $25 billion program to support struggling restaurants and bars with payroll, rent and mortgage, and operating expenses.
  • Supports schools to reopen safely by making nearly $130 billion available to states and school districts for immediate and long-term relief so they can work with public health experts to safely re-open schools.
  • Addresses growing food insecurity with key investments in SNAP, WIC, Pandemic EBT and other critical nutrition assistance.
  • Increases access to health care by improving subsidies for the ACA marketplace and subsidizing COBRA costs for laid-off employees who choose to maintain their health care plan
  • Supports our nation's veterans by providing more than $15 billion to improve the claims processing backlog, upgrade facilities at our state veterans homes, prohibit copayments on medical care during the COVID-19 emergency, and fund an additional 12 months of job retraining for veterans forced out of work due to the pandemic.

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