STIMULUS MONEY?

The 800 page $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill (or The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021) is more than about the pandemic. It passed on party line.

It includes $500 million for rural health efforts including vaccine distribution, access to medical supplies, telehealth and providing nutrition to vulnerable communities.

It gives $1,400 stimulus checks to those earning less than $80,000, $800 million to the Food for Peace program in 59 countries. There is $50 billion for small businesses and $28.6 billion for restaurants. It extends $300 federal unemployment insurance through September, unemployment benefits, a moratorium on evections and foreclosures.

It increases the child tax credit and boosts nutrition assistance programs 15% or $22.7 billion, funding for state and local governments, school reopening and housing assistance.

About $4 billion will be used to provide direct payments of up to 120% of a socially disadvantaged farmer’s or rancher’s (black, Hispanic, Native American or Asian) outstanding debt as of Jan. 1, 2021 such as farm loans, storage loans plus 20% to pay off the taxes associated with the debt plus $1.01 billion to provide training, education, grants and loans to help improve land access for those farmers and ranchers which amount to about $5 billion.

There is $10.4 billion for ag provisions in the bill, It has $3.6 billion for USDA commodities, $10 billion to purchase and distribute ag products and funding for ag and supply chain workers of 140 million food boxes. It provides $300 million for animal monitoring for SARS, $100 million to reduce fees on inspection costs at federally inspected meat, poultry and egg processing facilities.

It will gut state election laws, allow sameday registration with no ID. Every voter would get a mailed ballot with no witness signature required, ballot harvesting would be legal, use USPS addresses, allow automatic voter registration by multiple federal agencies without permission plus online voter registration, could add 16 and 17 year olds and felons to vote, allow voting out of precinct and counting ballots up to 10 days after election.

The National Farmers Union supports much of this and praises its passage, calling it a ‘lifeline’. There is more but it seems the liberals wanted to cover many things in this bill.

I am very glad that our Congressmen opposed it.

Marlene Kouba Regent, ND