The Biden Administration is preparing a massive spending proposal on infrastructure and other domestic priorities like childcare, drug costs, and climate change. According to The Hill, sources confirmed that the “Build Back Better” proposal will cost roughly $3 trillion, though they cautioned talks are fluid and the final top line number could change. The package represents the White House’s follow-up to the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, which was signed into law on March 11. The White House declined to confirm details of the proposal.
President Biden is expected to roll out the “Build Back Better” plan next week during a speech in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
According to The Washington Post and The Hill, among others, the new package is expected to be split into two separate bills. The first would focus on infrastructure, which is expected to include hundreds of billions of dollars for roads, bridges, water infrastructure, and railroads. It will also include funding for retrofitting buildings, safety improvements, school infrastructure, and low-income and tribal groups. More specifically, The Washington Post reports that $400 billion will be included to address climate change, including $60 billion for infrastructure related to green transit and $46 billion for climate-related research and development. The plan will also aim to make electric vehicle charging stations available across the country and would also include $200 billion for housing infrastructure, including $100 billion to expand the supply of housing for low-income Americans. The second component of the effort would include many of President Biden’s other domestic priorities, including universal pre-kindergarten and free community college tuition. The Administration is also working to determine how to pay for the plan, including evaluating numerous tax options.
Next week, President Biden is also expected to release his “skinny” budget proposal for FY 2022. The full budget request is not expected until May.
Capitol Hill. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell testified this week before the House Financial Services Committee (HFSC) and Senate Banking Committee (SBC), respectively, at hearings regarding “Oversight of the Treasury Department’s and Federal Reserve’s Pandemic Response” and “The Quarterly CARES Act Report to Congress”. Yellen and Powell told HFSC members that federal financial relief packages averted the worst economic consequences of the pandemic. They also told SBC members that the economy is healing but still in a deep hole and that continued government support is providing a critical lifeline to families and businesses. In her written testimony to the HFSC and SBC, Secretary Yellen provided updates on all programs administered by the Treasury Department from the enacted CARES Act, FY2021 Consolidated Appropriations Act, and the American Rescue Plan (ARP) Act of 2021. Regarding the $350 billion in Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds in the ARP, Yellen stated that “The Treasury Department is currently working to allocate these funds in line with Congress’s statutory instructions and setting up procedures to ensure this money is efficiently distributed to the state and local governments that need it.”
On March 17, House Ways and Means Committee, Oversight and Reform Committee, and Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis Ranking Members Kevin Brady (R-TX), James Comer (R-KY), and Steve Scalise (R-LA) sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Yellen, along with 36 House Republicans, highlighting the “urgent need for guidance and requesting clarification from the Treasury Department on questions pertaining to the Coronavirus State Fiscal Recovery and Coronavirus Local Fiscal Recovery Funds included in the American Rescue Plan (ARP).” They requested answers to their questions by March 26.
On March 18, House Energy and Commerce (E&C) Committee Ranking Member Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA), and the Ranking Members of the E&C Subcommittees on Health and Oversight and Investigations, Reps. Brett Guthrie (R-KY) and Morgan Griffith (R-VA), respectively, sent a letter to National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Francis Collins “to request information, assistance, and needed-leadership from the NIH to advance an independent, scientific investigation into the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic.”
On March 23, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Rep. Steve Horsford (D-NV) sent a bicameral letter, along with 32 Democratic House members and Senators, to Labor Secretary Marty Walsh requesting “that as the Department of Labor considers how to use the $2 billion appropriated for fraud prevention, equitable access, and timely payment in the American Rescue Plan, the Department should focus any technology and infrastructure modernization efforts on developing federal technology capabilities for unemployment insurance administration.”
On March 24, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Ranking Member Mike Crapo (R-ID) and Senate Special Aging Committee Chairman Bob Casey (D-PA) and Ranking Member Tim Scott (R-SC) sent a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra urging him “to take immediate steps that provide the public and Congress with transparent information showing the rates of COVID-19 vaccinations in the nation’s nursing homes.”
On March 24, House E&C Committee Chairman Frank Pallone (D-NJ) and Ranking Member Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA), along with E&C Subcommittee on Communications and Technology Chairman Mike Doyle (D-PA) and Ranking Member Bob Latta (R-OH), sent letters to 18 Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and their trade associations urging them to participate in and help make consumers aware of the newly created $3.2 billion Emergency Broadband Benefit Program, which will help struggling Americans afford high-speed internet.
Administration. With funding in large part from the American Rescue Plan, HHS will invest nearly $10 billion to expand access to vaccines and better serve communities of color, rural areas, low-income populations, and other underserved communities in the COVID-19 response. Of the investment, $6 billion will go into community health centers nationwide to expand vaccinations, testing, and treatment for vulnerable populations; and $3 billion will support local efforts to increase vaccine uptake and equity that will go directly to states, territories, and some large cities to support local health departments and community-based organizations.
President Biden signed into law H.R. 1276, the “Strengthening and Amplifying Vaccination Efforts to Locally Immunize All Veterans and Every Spouse Act or the SAVE LIVES Act,” which expands VA’s authority to provide COVID-19 vaccinations.
DOL launched a new website for people to understand unemployment insurance identity theft. The new website provides key steps to help victims address issues that might arise because of identity theft and outlines steps to report the theft of unemployment benefits.
The IRS announced the disbursement of approximately 37 million payments in the second batch of Economic Impact Payments from the American Rescue Plan. This brings the total disbursed payments from the American Rescue Plan to approximately 127 million payments worth approximately $325 billion.
CDC updated K–12 school guidance to reflect the latest science on physical distance between students in classrooms. CDC now recommends that, with universal masking, students should maintain a distance of at least 3 feet in classroom settings.
SBA announced private organizations, colleges and universities, private sector firms, nonprofit organizations and state, local or tribal governmental agencies in Pennsylvania, Delaware, Washington, D.C., Maryland, Northern California, and Nevada are eligible to apply for funding from the U.S. Small Business Administration to provide training and counseling to aspiring and existing veteran small business owners as a Veterans Business Outreach Center (VBOC).
The Federal Reserve Board announced the temporary change to its supplementary leverage ratio (SLR) for bank holding companies will expire as scheduled on March 31 due to a stabilized Treasury market.
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NACo sent a letter to the U.S. Treasury outlining county responses to NACo’s survey on local government allocations. The participating counties indicated the most helpful information the White House and U.S. Treasury could provide is guidance on the allowable use of funds.
DoorDash announced partnerships with Vault Health and Everlywell to bring customers access to two COVID-19 home collection kits that received FDA Emergency Use Authorization on-demand from DoorDash’s DashMart locations across the nation.
Vaccine News
Pfizer began early stage U.S. clinical trials of an investigational oral antiviral drug for COVID-19. The drug could be prescribed at the first sign of infection without requiring that patients are hospitalized or in critical care.
AstraZeneca released data from a study that found their vaccine is 75% effective in preventing symptomatic COVID-19, after counting additional illnesses in its U.S. study. Earlier this week, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, led by Dr. Anthony Fauci, said they were notified and “concerned by information released by AstraZeneca on initial data from the COVID-19 vaccine clinical trial.”
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Webinars, Events and Resources |
Helping City Residents Get Health Coverage Today
U.S. Conference of Mayors
April 6, at 1:00 PM ET
Housing Affordability Solutions in Cities
U.S. Conference of Mayors
April 8, at 3:00 PM ET
CRS Reports of interest:
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