In Case You Missed It...

CBPP’s main focus this week was enactment of the American Rescue Plan Act. We released an overview of several key parts of the Act as well as reports covering specific policy areas:

• Federal taxes: Chuck Marr, Kris Cox, Stephanie Hingtgen, Katie Windham, and Arloc Sherman examined the Act’s critical expansions of the Child Tax Credit and Earned Income Tax Credit.
• Housing: Douglas Rice and Ann Olivia outlined how the Act’s housing assistance provisions will prevent millions of evictions and help people experiencing homelessness.
• Health: Tara Straw, Sarah Lueck, Hannah Katch, Judith Solomon, Matt Broaddus, and Gideon Lukens detailed the Act’s provisions improving access to health coverage.
• Economy, Chad Stone discussed the Act’s important Unemployment Insurance extensions.
• State budgets: Nicholas Johnson explained a provision in the Act to protect against states using federal dollars to cut taxes.
• Food assistance: Dottie Rosenbaum, Zoë Neuberger, Brynne Keith-Jennings, and Catlin Nchako detailed how the Act’s nutrition provisions will reduce today’s high levels of hunger and hardship.
• Family income support: LaDonna Pavetti demonstrated how the Act’s Pandemic Emergency Assistance fund for the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program will help families with the lowest incomes.

We also released pieces on several other topics:

• On state budgets and taxes, Samantha Waxman and Juliette Legendre demonstrated how states can adopt or expand Earned Income Tax Credits (EITC) to build equitable and inclusive economies. Waxman explained why states should strengthen EITCs to respond to COVID.
• On housing, Will Fischer, Sonya Acosta, and Anna Bailey reported on the urgency of preserving public housing as a source of affordable homes for the lowest-income people and outlined their report in a policy brief.
• On the economy, Claire Zippel presented the latest data showing that millions are struggling to meet their basic needs a full year into the public health and economic crisis. We also updated our backgrounder on how many weeks of unemployment compensation are available and our fact sheet tracking the COVID-19 recession’s effects on food, housing, and employment hardships.

Chart of the Week — How the American Rescue Plan Helps People

Chart

A variety of news outlets featured CBPP’s work and experts this past week. Here are some of the highlights:

A Break for Working Families
New York Times
March 12, 2021

Provisions in the stimulus bill will help the 14% who don't have enough to eat
Insider
March 11, 2021

Joe Biden just launched the second war on poverty
Vox
March 10, 2021

31 billion coronavirus solutions
Indian Country Today
March 10, 2021

Plan de estímulo eleva hasta $3,600 el crédito tributario por hijo: te explicamos cómo puede ayudarte este año
Univision
March 9, 2021

COVID bill to deliver big health insurance savings for many
Associated Press
March 8, 2021

‘This is a significant amount of money’: COVID-19 relief bill would send nearly $170 billion to schools
MarketWatch
March 8, 2021

Biden stimulus showers money on Americans, sharply cutting poverty and favoring individuals over businesses
Washington Post
March 6, 2021

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