( ENSPIRE News ) House Democrats Have Proposed a Second Relief Package with The Goal of Funding States and Local Governments Directly in Order to Combat COVID-19
ENSPIRE Contributor: Tyler Burns
The House, under the leadership of Speaker Pelosi, has proposed another stimulus package to combat the coronavirus. This relief package is more ambitious than the prior package and seeks to address more issues like funding for heavily impacted states, territories, and local governments. This proposal is roughly 1800 pages and hopes to expand food assistance, unemployment benefits, and student debt relief while bringing about another round of $1,200 stimulus check directly to citizens. These measures are meant to curtail the direct economic and social effects of the coronavirus on people in need and the states, like New York and New Jersey, who are facing more dire situations.
On May 15, the House passed a second relief package and it’s being termed the HEROES Act in honor of our frontline workforce. It passed the House with 14 democrats opposing, and one Republican, Rep. Peter King (R-NY2), supporting it. This $3 trillion relief package has many goals but primarily it is aimed directly towards assisting states, local governments, and territories in there fights against the coronavirus. This proposal has several key provisions that will help millions of Americans and hopefully provide economic relief to affected small businesses that can’t recoup the losses from the pandemic. They’re several important provisions within the HEROES Act that should be highlighted.
As previously mentioned, $1 trillion of this relief package will be going to states, local governments, and territories to help aid them directly. States in need of more assistance under this proposal will be receiving more funds and other aid. This third of the spending package is being used to shore up state losses that were battered by emergency spending and significant losses in tax revenue. These funds are necessary to preserve the jobs of the front-line workers who have been fighting daily to contain this virus.
This package would also include a provision that would effectively ban utility shut-offs for home-owners and renters for the remainder of this national emergency. This falls under the $175 billion going towards rent and mortgage assistance across the country.
The provisions have been included that would benefit the marijuana industry as well, which has been deemed essential throughout this crisis. The provision would allow these businesses to start working with state and federal banks on loans and various other things. This could help stimulate our economy in several ways.
Since the start of the pandemic, stay-at-home orders have decreased human traffic, cars on the road, and congestion in inner-cities. Through the HEROES Act, some funds would be put towards the EPA to study pollution and public health throughout this crisis. Through these studies, as the result of humans being indoor, we can truly begin to see the effect of humans on the environment and pollution levels.
This bill will likely never meet the Senate floor because of strong opposition across the political aisle but this highlights the possible next relief package if it does come. Nancy Pelosi has signaled her willingness for negotiations in order to get this relief package ratified. Regardless of the politics of the situation, this displays that parts of the federal government are trying to help the average American citizen and business through these packages.
Partisanship and disagreements exist within our government over how to handle this situation and that’s simply undeniable. A silver-lining exists though within the fact that they have passed a relief package before and if it’s needed it can be down again with new guidelines to properly address problems. The disagreements over the necessity of the package exist but what everyone can agree on is the fact that things need to return to normal.
Even if this proposal never meets the Senate floor it displays two very key things. One, it shows a possible future guideline for our next relief package and secondly, a tenacity and coordinated effort within parts of our federal government to try to help our people in times of need.
To learn more about the full Heroes Act, please visit www.cdn.cnn.com.
