Vote Smart's Synopsis:

Vote to pass a bill that establishes a response to the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak and its impact on the economy, public health, state and local governments, individuals, and businesses by providing emergency supplemental funding to state and federal agencies, direct payments to individuals, and the expansion of paid sick, family, and medical leave.

Highlights:

• Appropriates $540 billion to states territories, and tribal government to mitigate the fiscal effects stemming from the COVID-19 public health emergency, of which (pg. 22-25):

• $20 billion is for making payments to Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands, the Northern Mariana Islands, and American Samoa; 

• $20 billion is for making payments to tribal governments; 

• $250 billion is for making initial payments to each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia (DC); and

• $250 billion will be for making additional payments to each of the 50 states and DC.

• Authorizes an additional recovery rebate to individuals in an amount equal to (pg. 160):

• $1,200 for an individual or $2,400 for a joint return; plus

• $1,200 multiplied by the number of dependents of the taxpayer, but no more than 3 dependents. 

• Authorizes the use of a Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN) for determining credits and rebates (pg. 151).

• Appropriates $375 billion to the coronavirus local fiscal relief fund for making payments to metropolitan cities, counties, and other units of local government to mitigate the fiscal effects stemming from the coronavirus public health emergency (pg. 27).

• Appropriates $75 billion to the Small Business Administration Business Loans Program Account (pg. 42).

• Appropriates $25 billion to the United States Postal Service for revenue forgone due to the coronavirus, required it prioritizes the purchase of and makes available to all its employees, personal protective equipment, including gloves, masks, and sanitizers (pg. 43).

• Appropriates $1 billion to the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund Program Account (CDFI) to provide grants using a formula that takes into account criteria such as certification status, financial and compliance performance, portfolio and balance sheet strength, and program capacity (pg. 33).

• Appropriates $2 billion to the Community Development Financial Institution Fund for providing financial and technical assistance, training, and outreach programs designed to benefit Native American, Native Hawaiian, and Alaska Native communities through community development lender organizations (pg. 1092).

• Appropriates $1 billion to the General Services Administration Technology Modernization Fund for technology-related modernization activities to prevent, prepare for, and respond to coronavirus (pg. 41).

• Appropriates $1 billion to the Departmental Offices, Insular Affairs assistance to territories, of which $945 million is for Capital Improvement Project grants for hospitals and other critical infrastructure, and $55 million is for territorial assistance, including general technical assistance (pg. 52).

• Appropriates $1 billion for the Secretary, acting through the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), to expand and improve the core public health infrastructure and activities of the CDC to address unmet and emerging public health needs (pg. 514 & 515).

• Appropriates $1 billion to the Secretary to award grants to institutions of higher education for the establishment, improvement, and expansion of an allopathic or osteopathic school of medicine in underserved areas (pg. 597).

• Appropriates $4 billion to the Department of Housing and Urban Development for tenant-based rental assistance for public and Indian housing (pg. 127).

• Appropriates $2 billion to the Public Housing Operating Fund to be used to cover or reimburse allowable costs incurred to prevent, prepare for, and respond to coronavirus (pg. 131).

• Appropriates $10 billion to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) (pg. 7).

• Appropriates $1.1 billion to the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) (pg. 6).

• Establishes and appropriates $6 billion to the Public Health Accreditation Program,, and requires the Secretary to (pg. 513 & 514):

• Develop standards for voluntary accreditation of state, local, tribal, and territorial health departments and public health laboratories for the purpose of advancing the quality and performance of such departments and laboratories; and

• Implement a program to accredit such health departments and laboratories. 

• Appropriates $2.04 billion to the Department of Labor (DOL) for training and employment services (pg. 58).

• Appropriates $485 million for grants to states for adult employment and training activities, including worker training, transitional jobs, on-the-job training, individualized career services, supportive services, needs-related payments, and the facilitation of remote access to training services (pg. 59).

• Appropriates $3.6 billion to the Election Assistance Commission for election resilience grants and contingency planning, preparation, and resilience of federal elections (pg. 35).

• Appropriates $100 billion to the Public Health and Social Services Emergency Fund to prevent, prepare for, and respond to the coronavirus (pg. 87).

• Appropriates $75 billion to the Public Health and Social Services Emergency Fund for responding to and carrying out the COVID-19 National Testing and Contact Tracing Initiative (pg. 88).

• Appropriates $75 billion to the Homeowner Assistance Fund (pg. 21).

• Appropriates $100 billion to emergency rental assistance (pg. 136).

• Appropriates $750 million to the Project-Based Rental Assistance Housing Program (pg. 136).

• Appropriates $500 million to the Housing for the Elderly Housing Program (pg. 137).

• Appropriates $100 million to the Office of Violence Against Women for prevention and prosecution programs (pg. 13).

• Requires the US Comptroller General to carry out a study on the barriers to marketplace entry, including the licensing process, and access to financial services for potential and existing minority-owned and women-owned cannabis-related legitimate businesses (page 1077).

• Requires the US Comptroller General to issue a report to Congress containing all findings of the above-mentioned study, and any regulatory or legislative recommendations for removing barriers to marketplace entry and expanding access to financial services for potential and existing minority-owned and women-owned cannabis-related legitimate businesses (pg. 1078).

• Prohibits a federal banking regulator from (pg. 1066-1069):

• Terminating or limiting the deposit or share insurance of a depository institution, or take any other adverse actions solely because the institution provides financial services to a cannabis-related legitimate business or service provider; 

• Prohibiting, penalizing, or otherwise discouraging a depository institution from providing financial services to a cannabis-related legitimate business or to a state, political subdivision of a state, or Indian tribe that exercises jurisdiction over cannabis-related legitimate businesses;

• Recommending, incentivizing, or encouraging a depository institution not to offer financial services to an account holder, or to downgrade or cancel financial services offered to an account holder solely because:

• The account holder is a cannabis-related legitimate business; 

• The account holder later becomes an employee, owner, or operator of a cannabis-related legitimate business; or

• The depository institution was not aware that the account holder is an employee, owner, or operator of a cannabis-related legitimate business; 

• Taking any adverse or corrective supervisory action to a loan made to: 

• A cannabis-related legitimate business or service provider, solely because the business is a cannabis-related legitimate business; 

• An employer, owner or operator of a cannabis-related legitimate business, solely because the employee, owner, or operator is employed by, owns, or operates a cannabis-related legitimate business; or

• An owner or operator of real estate or equipment that is leased to a cannabis-related legitimate business, solely because they leased the equipment; or

• Prohibiting or penalizing a depository institution for, or otherwise discouraging a depository institution from engaging in financial services for a cannabis-related legitimate business.

• Appropriates $200 million to the Department of Justice for the needs of the federal prison system, including medical testing and services, personal protective equipment, hygiene supplies, and sanitation services (pg. 11-12).

• Appropriates $1.3 billion to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), of which $500 million will be for assistance to firefighter grants for the purchase of personal protective equipment, mental health evaluations, training, and temporary infectious disease de-contamination (pg. 46-47).

• Appropriates $200 million for housing for persons with disabilities (pg. 138).

• Requires the Director of the National Institutes of Health to conduct a longitudinal study over no less than 10 years, on the full impact of SARS-CoV-2 or COVID-19 on infected individuals, including both short-term and long-term health impacts (pg. 601).

• Extends Emergency Family and Medical Leave until December 31, 2021 (pg. 1127).

• Appropriates $20 million for the Secretary to establish or operate a center to be known as the Emergency Mental Health and Substance Use Training and Technical Assistance Center to provide technical assistance and support (pg. 605):

• To public or nonprofit entities seeking to establish and expand access to mental health and substance use prevention, treatment, and recovery support services, and increase awareness of such services; and

• To public health professionals, health care professionals and support staff, essential workers, and members of the public to address the trauma, stress, and mental health needs associated with an emergency period.

• Appropriates $12.15 billion for family care for essential workers, of which $850 million will be obligated by states (pg. 879).

• Appropriates $11.5 billion for emergency homeless assistance to respond to needs arising from the public health emergency relating to the COVID-19 coronavirus (pg. 1014, 1015).

• Appropriates $21 million for the Secretaries, in consultation with the CDC Director, and the US Geological Survey, to identify wildlife species that could pose a biohazard risk to human health, and perform a risk analysis for each species (pg. 1628).

• Requires the Secretaries, in consultation with the Secretary of State, to provide assistance to foreign countries to end the trade of wildlife that poses a risk to humans because of the transmission of pathogens that cause disease (pg. 1629).

• Authorizes the President to provide assistance for activities, costs, and purchases of eligible nonprofit organizations, including (pg. 1804):

• Activities eligible for assistance under the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act; 

• Backfill costs for first responders and other essential employees who are ill or quarantined; 

• Increased operating costs for essential government services due to such emergency, including costs for implementing continuity plans, and shelter or housing for first responders, emergency managers, health providers, and other essential employees;

• Costs of providing guidance and information to the public for all call centers to disseminate such guidance and information;

• Costs associated with establishing and operating virtual services; 

• Costs for establishing and operating remote test sites; 

• Training provided specifically in anticipation of or in response to the event on which such emergency declaration is predicated; 

• Personal protective equipment and other critical supplies for first responders and other essential employees; 

• Medical equipment; 

• Public health costs; 

• Costs associated with maintaining alternate care facilities or related facilities currently inactive but related to future needs tied to the ongoing pandemic event; 

• Costs of establishing and operating shelters and providing services that help alleviate the need of individuals for shelter, including individuals transitioning out of detention; and

• Costs of procuring and distributing food to individuals affected by the pandemic through networks established by the state, local, or tribal governments, including restaurants and farms, and for the purchase of food directly from food producers and farmers. 

• Establishes protections for renters and homeowners from evictions by establishing a temporary moratorium on eviction filings (pg. 961).

• Appropriates $5 billion for community development block grants to state, territorial, tribal, and local governments, which will be available until September 30, 2023 (pg. 1119).

• Amends the employee retention requirement for tax credits, established in the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, from 50 to 80 percent (pg. 236).

• Increases the per-employee limitation for employee retention tax credits, established in the CARES Act, to $15,000 in any calendar quarter and $45,000 in aggregate for all calendar quarters (pg. 236 & 237).

• Extends federal pandemic unemployment compensation to workers through January 31, 2021 (pg. 682).

• Requires the Secretary, in coordination with the CDC Director and in collaboration with the Director of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, the Commissioner of Foods and Drugs, and the Administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, to support research and development on more efficient and effective strategies (pg. 534):

• For the surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19; 

• For the testing and identification of individuals infected with COVID-19; and

• For the tracing of contacts of individuals infected with COVID-19.

• Authorizes an undocumented immigrant who is a physician to apply to acquire the status of a lawfully admitted US permanent resident during the public health emergency in order to supplement the COVID-19 response workforce (pg. 1739).

• Requires the Secretary of Homeland Security to expedite the processing of applications and petitions seeking employment or classification of a legal immigrant to practice medicine, provide healthcare, engage in medical research, or participate in a graduate medical education or training program involving the diagnosis, treatment, or prevention of COVID-19 (pg. 1740).

• Appropriates $2.1 billion to the Department of Health and Human Services for Indian Health Services, of which (pg. 54):

• $1 billion will be used to supplement reduced third party revenue collections;

• $500 million will be used for direct health and telehealth services, including to purchase supplies and personal protective equipment; 

• $140 million will be used to expand broadband infrastructure and information technology for telehealth and electronic health record system purposes; 

• $20 million will be used to address the needs of domestic violence victims and homeless families and individuals;

• No less than $64 million will be given to Urban Indian Organizations; and

• No less than $10 million will be used to provide and deliver potable water.

Full Bill Text

Full Bill Text