Congress Nears New Stimulus Deal: What That Means For Connecticut

CONNECTICUT — For months, members of Congress have dug in their heels, avoided concessions and failed to deliver a much-needed federal relief package aimed at helping cash-strapped Americans in Connecticut and others get through the fallout of the coronavirus pandemic.

Now, it appears negotiators in Washington, D.C., might finally be nearing an agreement. For much of this week, members of Congress worked through the last remaining holdups on a long-delayed $900 billion COVID-19 economic relief package.

At the center of the package would be billions in aid to small businesses, extended federal and state unemployment benefits, direct payments to Americans, and additional funds to renters and people needing food aid.

The package, while certainly long overdue, comes just as a new report confirms that nearly 8 million Americans have fallen into poverty since this summer, in part because emergency benefit programs expired. More Americans are filing for unemployment benefits, and the pace of hiring has slowed.

House leaders had been eyeing Friday for a possible vote, which was also the day a stopgap funding bill passed by Congress last week was set to expire. The original intention was for a vote to not only decide the fate of the coronavirus relief measure but also a $1.4 trillion government funding bill needed to avoid a federal government shutdown. But late Friday, the Wall Street Journal reported that House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said the earliest vote in the House would be at 1 p.m. Sunday.

Should the coronavirus relief package pass both the House and Senate, here are five things it could do for people and businesses in Connecticut:

1) Send direct payments to people in Connecticut.

While initially not part of negotiations, direct payments were added to the package after negotiators failed to come to an agreement on aid for state and local governments. Striking that from the measure freed up $160 billion to be used for direct payments.

Currently, the package is expected to send one-time checks to millions of Americans below a certain income threshold. The amount will likely be between $600 and $700, The Washington Post reported.

Stimulus payments have received endorsements from President Donald Trump as well as progressives including Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who remains dissatisfied about the overall package, according to The Associated Press.

The CARES Act passed in March provided for $1,200 payments per adult and $500 per child.

Additionally, the package is expected to defer federal student loan payments until April 2021, a policy that could impact about 40 million student loan borrowers.

2) Extend federal unemployment benefits for people out of work.

If approved, the relief package would include a $300-per-week bonus federal jobless benefit in addition to the renewal of soon-to-expire state benefits.

The CARES Act passed in March gave $600 per week to people who were out of work, on top of their usual state unemployment check. When this funding lapsed at the end of July, Trump signed an executive action to pay a $300-per-week bonus. That money will run out Dec. 31.

The need for additional unemployment aid was underscored Thursday by the release of weekly unemployment numbers — nationwide, 885,000 people applied for jobless benefits last week, the highest weekly total since September.

The new proposed unemployment aid would cover jobless Americans until April 2021.

The November 2020 official unemployment rate for Connecticut was estimated by the Bureau of Labor Statistics to be 8.2 percent (seasonally adjusted), higher by 2.1 percentage points from the revised October level of 6.1 percent. The Connecticut unemployment rate was 3.8 percent in November 2019

3) Renew an eviction ban for renters.

The new proposal would protect renters from evictions through Jan. 31, 2021. It would do this by providing $25 billion to state and local governments to pay for rent and utilities.

The CARES Act initially put in place a nationwide ban on evictions for renters who were late on rent. Trump extended the ban, but that extension, too, is set to expire at the end of the year.

In October, Gov. Ned Lamont extended protections for residential renters affected by COVID-19 via an executive order. That order extends the moratorium on residential evictions to Dec. 31.

4) Provide aid to people in Connecticut who are hungry.

A report by Vox said the package will provide $13 billion to help fund a monthly 15 percent increase in individual SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) benefits, aid for children who received food support at school, and money for other programs including Meals on Wheels and WIC (Women, Infants and Children).

Demand for such aid has spiked dramatically during the pandemic, Vox reports, with food banks across the country facing overwhelming need in recent months.

Nationwide, Feeding America predicts that 39 weeks of historic joblessness and business failures due to the coronavirus pandemic will likely leave as many as 50 million people nationwide without enough to eat.

Connecticut is not exempt from the hunger crisis facing our country. Every county in the state has seen big increases in food insecurity as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, according to Feeding America.

5) Extend Paycheck Protection Program funding for small businesses in Connecticut.

The new proposal would add $300 billion to the Paycheck Protection Program, which offers business owners forgivable loans as a way to help cover employees’ wages instead of laying them off.

The Paycheck Protection Program is geared toward businesses with 300 or fewer employees that have seen a 30 percent or higher decrease in revenue in any quarter this year. A report by Fortune said almost 100,000 small businesses have already closed permanently during the pandemic.