American Rescue Plan Act of 2021

Floor Speech

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Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, now on the American Rescue Plan. As Americans learn more and more about ARP, the American Rescue Plan, the more popular it becomes and the more optimistic Americans feel about our economic recovery.

Across the country, the support for the rescue plan has risen to over 70 percent. In January of this year, before President Biden took office and Democrats assumed the majority of the Senate, more than four in five Americans believed America was on the wrong track; less than one in five said it was on the right track.

Now a majority, 55 percent, believe the country is headed in the right direction. It is back on the right track. That is a dramatic turn rather quickly, but I think it is, in part, because of the good work we have done here in the Senate.

Now we have learned something else: Consumer confidence has increased faster after the passage of the American Rescue Plan than after any of the other stimulus bills passed by Congress, particularly among low- and middle-income Americans, who have suffered the most.

That is fantastic news. Americans at the top have been able to survive the pandemic much more easily than Americans at the lower end of the ladder. For that reason, economists have long feared a K-shaped recovery in which high-income earners recover quickly, while middle- and low-income earners are left behind.

The American Rescue Plan is finally restoring confidence and support for Americans at the middle and at the bottom, helping drive a robust recovery for everyone.

One crucial aspect of that recovery is support for housing. As we all know, during the pandemic, tens of millions of Americans were out of work and drained family incomes. Americans were forced into impossible choices: Do I pay the rent and utilities this month or do I buy another few weeks of groceries?

Sadly, more than 13 million Americans report that they have fallen behind on the rent, especially Black and Brown Americans.

So when Senate Democrats put together the American Rescue Plan, we made one of the most significant investments in housing assistance in recent history: more than $20 billion in emergency aid for low-income renters, those at the greatest risk of eviction; $10 billion to help homeowners behind on mortgages and utilities to avoid foreclosure.

We include crucial support for rural America, homeowners struggling with the mortgage, and Americans, particularly veterans, who have recently fallen into homelessness or at risk of homelessness.

The American Rescue Plan goes further in delivering housing assistance to Tribal Nations and Native Hawaiians, more than any other housing bill in history.

The American Rescue Plan, quite literally, will keep a roof over Americans' heads. It is just one of the many ways the ARP delivers relief to struggling Americans and sets the stage for a supercharged economic recovery.

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