patrick.net

House Democrat leaders released their coronavirus stimulus plan late last night and started deliberations in the House Rules Committee on it. Called the Families First Coronavirus Response Act, below are highlights of the benefit provisions included in the 124-page legislation, which is scheduled to be on the House floor today:

The legislation contains the second supplemental appropriation for coronavirus response in a week, after the President signed the first $8 billion coronavirus appropriation act last Friday.

The appropriations in the legislation include increases in funding for benefit programs like WIC ($500 million) and Commodity Assistance ($400 million). The legislation also provides $250 million to the Department of Health and Human Services for Aging and Disability Services Programs, including for home-delivered meal programs.

The legislation allows for temporary expansions in the food stamp program to account for children who cannot receive school meals due to closures and provides open-ended funding to the Secretary of Agriculture to administer this expansion. It further designates $100 million for grants to Puerto Rico, American Samoa and CNMI for nutrition assistance.

The legislation suspends the administration’s effort to end waivers of the longstanding food stamp work requirement for able-bodied childless adults (who would otherwise be expected to work or participate in training part time to continue collecting food stamps for longer than three months in a three-year period).

The legislation includes a new “emergency paid leave program” for individuals diagnosed with coronavirus, quarantined in order to prevent its spread, or who are caring for someone with coronavirus, quarantined, or whose school has closed. This new entitlement program would be administered by the Social Security Administration and operate for the next year. Benefits would equal two-thirds of prior average wages, are capped at $4,000 per month, and are not taxable. Key eligibility terms are based on self-attestation.
The legislation also includes a new entitlement program for “Paid Sick Days for Public Health Emergencies and Personal and Family Care,” administered by the Department of Labor.

The legislation provides all states a share of $1 billion in unemployment insurance (UI) administrative funding, payable based on each state’s taking actions to expand access to UI benefits. Half of the $1 billion would be available within 30 days to states that expand access to UI in general such as by requiring employers to provide notice of the availability of UI to separated employees, among other terms. The other half of the $1 billion would be available only in states that experience at least a 10 percent spike in UI claims and that also express their “commitment to maintain and strengthen access” to UI in general and have eased UI eligibility requirements for those affected by coronavirus. The legislation promotes short-time compensation programs, revives 100 percent federal funding for the historically 50/50 federal-state extended benefits (EB) program, and provides for interest-free federal loans to states.

The legislation requires all health plans (including Medicare, Medicaid, and Tricare) to provide for full coverage of testing for coronavirus.

The legislation increases the federal share of Medicaid costs (known as the FMAP rate) by eight percentage points, but only if states maintain or increase current eligibility and other program standards.

Funding in the bill is declared emergency spending. Published reports suggest the Congressional Budget Office is not expected to produce a score before the legislation is considered in the House.

https://www.aei.org/poverty-studies/whats-in-the-families-first-coronavirus-response-act/