Part of the American Resue Plan Act, known as the State and Local Coronavirus Fiscal Recovery Funds legislation, was signed into law by President Joe Biden on March 11, 2021. The estimated allocations for North Carolina in the bill are $2,034,099,306. Bladen County may receive up to $6,346,230 in portions due to the act.
According to a briefing given by President Biden, the American Rescue Plan will:
- Mount a national vaccination program, contain COVID-19, and safely reopen schools, including by setting up community vaccination sites nationwide, scaling up testing and tracing, eliminating supply shortage problems, investing in high-quality treatments, providing paid sick leave to contain spread of the virus, addressing health disparities, and making the necessary investments to meet the President’s goal of safely reopening a majority of K-8 schools in the first 100 days.
- Deliver immediate relief to working families bearing the brunt of this crisis by sending $1,400 per-person checks to households across America, providing direct housing and nutrition assistance, expanding access to safe and reliable childcare and affordable healthcare, increasing the minimum wage, extending unemployment insurance, and giving families with kids and childless workers an emergency boost this year.
- Support communities that are struggling in the wake of COVID-19 by providing support for the hardest-hit small businesses, especially small businesses owned by entrepreneurs of color, and protecting the jobs of the first responders, transit workers, and other essential workers we depend on.
In addition to addressing the public health and economic crises, the plan will provide emergency funding to upgrade federal information technology infrastructure and address the recent breaches of federal government data systems.
According to the National Association of Counties, the bill includes $65.1 billion in direct, flexible aid to every county in America and other crucial investments in local communities, including $1.5 billion over two years for public lands counties.
The U.S. Department of the Treasury will oversee and administer the payments to state and local governments, according to the National Association of Counties, and every county would be eligible to receive a direct allocation from Treasury. Municipalities and counties may receive funds in two tranches – with 50 percent this year and the remaining 50 percent no earlier than 12 months from the first payment.
The values are given by the House of Representatives and the Congressional Research Service (CRS). The estimates are not official values from the U.S. Treasury and are subject to change.
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