Providing for Consideration of Senate Amendment to H.R. American Rescue Plan Act of 2021

Floor Speech

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Ms. DeLAURO. Madam Speaker, after a year of battling this pandemic, our communities are on the edge, and the American Rescue Plan is here.

To the American public, help is on the way.

It will put money directly into people's pockets. The $1,400 per person payment, the expansion of unemployment benefits will help people deal with increasing debt, paying rent, buying food, and paying healthcare bills. State and local funding is necessary to prevent our State and local governments from relying on tax increases to stay afloat; to keep first responders, frontline health workers, and other providers of vital services on the job.

One of the provisions included in the American Rescue Plan that I am particularly proud of, that I have championed for nearly two decades, is the expansion and the improvement of the child tax credit. In this plan, the credit increases from $2,000 to $3,000 for children 6-17, with an additional $600 each for children under 6. Think of that. It is a new lifeline to the middle class, and it cuts child poverty nearly in half.

Franklin Roosevelt lifted seniors out of poverty--90 percent of them--with Social Security. And with the stroke of a pen, President Biden is going to lift millions and millions of children out of poverty in this country.

As families struggle to stay in their home, feed their families, purchase necessities, this plan provides for hardworking Americans. It includes $12 billion in emergency food assistance, including an extension of increased food stamps. The relief also provides $45 billion for rental and mortgage assistance.

It is time to make a bold investment in the health and the security of the American people. This is a watershed moment, an historic piece of legislation. We will vote for the American Rescue Plan with the determination to adequately meet the moment with strength, with action, and with hope.

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