A federal stimulus finally passes

Fort Bragg City Manager, Tabatha Miller

As we near the Christmas and New Year’s Day holidays, I am looking at what the next year will bring. I suspect many of us are looking forward and not backward this year. Monday, December 21, Congress passed a 5,593-page, $2.3 trillion bill, which the L.A. Times indicated was thought to be the largest single piece of legislation in Congressional history.

The bill includes approximately $900 billion for COVID-19 relief, which many Americans have been waiting for months to receive. So there is COVID aid coming. While this is not necessarily city news, it is assistance that should be available starting in the New Year and may help our neighbors, businesses or even ourselves survive this next year.

The headline was the $600 per adult and $600 per child stimulus payments. Those payments are phased out for higher-earning individuals and families. Estimates for when these funds will start to be paid range from next week to the middle of January.

This accounts for approximately $166 billion of the $900 billion aid package.

The second most anticipated aid was for workers receiving unemployment benefits. The bill provides an additional $300 per week as a federal subsidy to state benefits, through March 14, 2021. The bill also extended the time that workers can collect state and federal unemployment benefits to 50 weeks and includes aid for self-employed, gig workers and others in nontraditional employment who traditionally do not qualify for unemployment benefits. The jobless aid is estimated at $120 billion.

Funding for small businesses includes over $284 billion for first and second forgivable Payroll Protection Program loans, set-aside funding for very small businesses and lending through communitybased lenders, funding for nonprofits, local newspapers, TV and radio broadcasters. There is also $20 billion for new Economic Injury Disaster Loans grants for businesses in low-income communities and $4.5 billion for Small Business Administration debt relief and lending enhancements. $15 billion is dedicated to funding for entertainment venues, including theaters. In total, $325 billion is allocated for small businesses.

Federal funds of $25 billion will support emergency federal rental assistant programs which will likely be distributed by state and local governments. Similar to the city’s Tenant-Based Rental Assistance Program, which