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House passes $2.2 trillion COVID relief bill

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The U.S. House has passed a $2.2 trillion last-ditch COVID relief package ahead of the Nov. 3 election that would scale back many provisions from the original HEROES Act but still provide additional funding and flexibility to counties.

The Updated HEROES Act (H.R. 8406) passed on a largely party-line 214-207 vote Oct. 1. It preserved many major provisions from the HEROES Act (H.R. 6800), including an additional round of $1,200 relief checks, reauthorizing the small business lending program, resuming the $600 federal boost to the unemployment benefit through January, increasing food stamp benefits and providing assistance for the airline industry.

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NACo Analysis: Updated Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus Emergency Solutions (HEROES) Act

Of key importance to counties, the bill would provide $89.5 billion in direct and flexible funding to counties through new State and Local Coronavirus Relief Funds. It also includes county priorities for retroactive changes to increase the flexibility of the Coronavirus Relief Fund (CRF) established under the CARES Act (PL 116-136).  

Although the revised House package represents a potential compromise, the Senate has already indicated the bill is still too costly and the White House has sought to hold the funding level at $1.5 trillion.

The $89.5 billion in direct and flexible funding is a reduction of nearly $100 billion from H.R. 6800, but this new funding can be used for COVID-related expenses, to replace lost revenues not projected on Jan. 31, 2020, or to respond to negative economic impacts of COVID-19. The new funds would not have a spending deadline, providing flexibility over the next several years. The bill would allow those funds to replace lost revenue and extend the date of expenditure for CARES funds to Dec. 31, 2021. State governments would receive $238 billion in direct and $19 billion would go to tribes and territories.

The updated HEROES Act contains many of the same provisions outlined in H.R. 6800. Among these, the updated HEROES act preserves:

  • Expanded Unemployment Benefits of $600 weekly through January 2021

  • Funding for election assistance and security ahead of the 2020 election

  • The temporary uniform SNAP benefit increase of 15 percent 

  • Emergency funding for Head Start programs

  • Supplemental funding for key workforce and training programs under the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA)

  • Funding for mortgage and rental assistance for homeowners and renters

  • The clarification that public and private sector employers are covered by the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) and the suspension of the prerequisite eligibility requirements for FMLA until December 2022

  • Funding to investigate or address the disproportionate impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic in environmental justice communities

  • Language preventing counties that receive any funding under the bill from disconnecting or interrupting water or energy service to ratepayers that have not paid their bill due to COVID-19

  • Expanded local access to the Federal Reserve’s Municipal Liquidity Facility, a program that NACo has advocated expanding

  • Funding for grants under the U.S. Department of Justice to assist counties in addressing issues brought on by the pandemic in local jails, courts and other areas of the criminal justice system

  • Funding for the 2020 Census to meet additional expenses incurred due to the coronavirus pandemic

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