WASHINGTON — The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday voted to approve the landmark $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill and sending the bill to President Joe Biden’s desk to be signed into law.
Connecticut’s delegation in the House said the so-called American Rescue Plan is the most “significant piece of legislation since the New Deal.” They all voted in favor of the bill.
“(It) will provide the resources we need to overcome the virus and help Americans to return to their normal lives,” Rep. John B. Larson (CT-01) said in a statement. “The American Rescue Plan will put shots in people’s arms, money in people’s pockets and provide relief for their communities and schools.”
Rep. Rosa DeLauro (CT-03) said in a statement that the people across Connecticut are struggling to stay in their homes, feed their families and purchase necessities and that with the passage of the bill “help is on the way.”
Biden is set to sign the bill into law on Friday and is expected to go around the U.S. explaining what is in the bill, and laying out the assistance that will be going to households and businesses across the country.
“It's a remarkable, historic, transformative piece of legislation which goes a very long way to crushing the virus and solving our economic crisis," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said Tuesday.
The U.S. Senate passed the bill on Saturday in a vote that was by party line. Vice Resident Kamala Harris was the deciding tiebreaker.
The bill provides up to $1,400 direct payments to most Americans, extended emergency unemployment benefits, and hundreds of billions for COVID-19 vaccines and treatments, schools, state and local governments and ailing industries from airlines to concert halls.
There is aid for farmers of color and pension systems, and subsidies for consumers buying health insurance and states expanding Medicaid coverage for lower earners.
“Connecticut towns and cities have borne a lot of the brunt of the pandemic, providing essential public health, public safety, and social services,” Rep. Joe Courtney (CT-02) said in a statement. “The American Rescue Plan Act will get long-awaited relief straight to municipalities where it’s needed most right now, and it will do so quickly and directly. The bill streamlines the payments, and allows flexibility for local leaders.
According to Gov. Ned Lamont, Connecticut is set to receive more than $4.2 billion from the stimulus package: $2.6 billion in state relief and $1.6 billion in local relief. The funds, he said, will be distributed from 2020 to 2024.
“The impacts of the American Rescue Plan will be felt immediately,” said Rep. Jahana Hayes (CT-05).
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