Stimulus Package Includes Rental Assistance
Part of the COVID stimulus package signed by President Trump on Sunday, Dec. 27, features $25 billion for rental assistance including $800 million reserved for Native American housing entities.
According to Sen. Jon Tester’s office, the $800 million will go to tribes and tribally designated housing authorities for Emergency Rental Assistance to families and individuals struggling to pay their rent and utility bills due to the pandemic. These funds will be distributed using the Native American Housing Block Grant formula for fiscal year 2020.
The bill also include $1 billion to Indian Health Service for vaccines, testing and tracing, community health and health care provider support.
“For months, I’ve pushed leadership on both sides of the aisle to negotiate an economic stimulus package that will put our economy back on track and get Montanans back to work, and today Congress listened to Montana commonsense,” Tester said in a press release last week. “No one got everything they wanted in this package, but it’s a bipartisan compromise that provides targeted support for Montana small businesses and folks who lost their jobs through no fault of their own, and it will help get vaccines to folks in rural America quickly and effectively. I will keep working across the aisle to aggressively hold the federal government accountable so that relief gets into the hands of Montana families as soon as possible.”
The bill includes stimulus checks consisting of $600 to individuals as well as an additional $600 per child. The bill also extends unemployment benefits to self-employed individuals, gig workers and those who have exhausted their state benefits.
Other funding in the bill includes:
•$20 billion for vaccine procurement and distribution.
•$22 billion in grants to states to support contact tracing, COVID-19 testing, and mitigation efforts to control the virus.
•An additional $300 per week in unemployment benefits through March 14, 2021.
•Extends deadline for use of the Coronavirus Relief Fund for states, cities and Tribes from the CARES Act one year, until Dec. 31, 2021.
•$284 billion for first and second forgivable Paycheck Protection Program Loans. Expands PPP eligibility for more critical access hospitals, local newspapers and TV and radio broadcasters, and 501(c)(6) nonprofits, including tourism promotion organizations and local chambers of commerce.
•$15 billion for live entertainment venues.
•$65 million to implement Tester’s Broadband DATA Act, which updates federal broadband funding distribution maps to ensure accurate and efficient allocation of resources.
•$250 million for the Federal Communications Commission’s COVID Telehealth Program.
•$13 billion in direct payments for farmers and ranchers.
•$1 billion for Amtrak.
•$81 billion to support education.
