Today, Congresswoman Lizzie Fletcher (TX-07) voted to pass The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, a COVID-19 relief package to address the health and economic crisis caused by the pandemic.  The legislation now heads to the President’s desk to be signed into law. 

“The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 provides much-needed assistance to people across our community as we confront this devastating public health and economic crisis.  This plan mobilizes the people and resources we need now, including a national vaccination program, financial assistance, unemployment assistance, rental assistance, funding for schools and funding for state and local governments that are responding to this pandemic every day,” said Congresswoman Lizzie Fletcher.  “In Houston and Harris County, local governments are estimated to be eligible to receive more than $1.5 billion through The American Rescue Plan Act, funds our local elected officials have told me are essential to our community’s ability to respond.  For these reasons, I was proud to work on this vital bill, to vote for it, and to see it pass today.”

Congresswoman Fletcher added: “I am also glad that this legislation includes my bill to incentivize states like Texas to expand Medicaid and increase access to health care for low-income families across our state.  I look forward to President Biden signing this legislation into law, and I will continue to advocate for our community and our country as we work to overcome the many challenges of the pandemic together.”

As a member of the Energy and Commerce Committee, Congresswoman Fletcher directly worked on provisions to establish a national vaccination program, expand national testing efforts, ramp up health services for underserved communities, increase internet access, and more.  Fletcher’s bill to incentivize Medicaid expansion and ensure millions of low-income Americans have access to health care, the Expand Medicaid Now Act, passed as a part of The American Rescue Plan Act.   

Funding for Texas’ Seventh Congressional District

The American Rescue Plan Act provides urgent funding to help communities across the country battle the coronavirus, restore critical services to struggling families, and help ensure our health care workers, first responders, sanitation and transportation workers, and teachers are able to continue to serve our communities. The House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Reform estimates the legislation would deliver: 

The American Rescue Plan Act also provides:

• Support to stop the spread of the virus: The plan will establish a national vaccination program that includes setting up community vaccination sites nationwide and includes funding to protect Americans in the meantime by 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. 
• Direct payments for Americans: The package provides a new round of economic impact payments of up to $1,400 per adult or child.  In December, Congress enacted a COVID-19 relief package that provided a direct payment of $600 per person.  The American Rescue Plan Act builds on that down payment, bringing the total relief payment to $2,000 per person in combination with the year-end relief package. 
• Support for small businesses: The bill expands PPP eligibility for nonprofits, provides $25 billion for grants to support local restaurants, and includes $15 billion in Targeted EIDL Advances for the hardest hit businesses.
• Enhanced Unemployment Insurance benefits: This bill renews the pandemic-related enhanced unemployment insurance, including making sure gig workers remain eligible to receive benefits and making unemployment insurance payments up to a certain amount non-taxable.
• Additional rental assistance: The bill provides an additional $25 billion for rental assistance and emergency housing vouchers to help keep folks in their homes as well as $5 billion to assist low-income families pay for their utilities.
• $130 billion to help K-12 schools re-open safely: This relief package gives K-12 schools funding to safely reopen and address lost time in the classroom and expands grants to make child care safer and more affordable for families.
• An increase in the Earned Income Tax Credit and Child Tax Credit: This package includes funding for increasing the Child Tax Credit to $3,000 for children over 6 and $3,600 for children 6 and under, which would lift 4.1 million American kids above the poverty line.