for the homeowner assistance fund. this fund will allocate money to states and local governments, which will then give grants to homeowners to prevent them from defaulting on their mortgage or foreclosing on their home. these grants can also be used to pay for flood insurance premiums, hoa fees, utility bills, and any other necessary payments to prevent the homeowner from losing their home. $5 billion for the section 8 housing choice voucher program. these funds must go to those who are or were recently homeless, as well as individuals who are escaping from domestic violence, sexual assault, or human trafficking. $5 billion to support state and local programs for the homeless and at-risk individuals. these funds can be used for rental assistance, housing counseling, and homelessness prevention services. additionally, these grants can be used by state and local governments to buy and convert commercial properties into permanent shelters or affordable housing. $4.5 billion for the low-income home energy assistance program, which will assist homeowners with the costs of heating and cooling. $750 million for housing assistance for tribes and native hawaiians. these grants can be used by tribal nations or native hawaiians to pay rent or stay housed. $500 million in grants for low-income homes to help with water services. $139 million for rural housing assistance programs. $120 million for housing counseling services. covid-19 provisions the bill contains the following covid-19 funding (including for covid-19 vaccines, testing, and contact tracing) and other healthcare-related funding: $50 billion to the federal emergency management agency for vaccine distribution and assistance. additionally, fema will reimburse up to $9,000 for a funeral held for a covid-19 victim. $47.8 billion on covid-19 testing, mitigation, and transmission prevention, including diagnosis, tracing, and monitoring. $13.48 billion for department of veterans affairs healthcare programs through september 30, 2023. $10 billion under the defense production act for personal protective equipment and other medical gear, and for response to pathogens that could become future public health emergencies. $7.66 billion for workforce programs for state, local, and territorial public health departments and certain nonprofits, including funds to hire and train "case investigators, contact tracers, social support specialists, community health workers, public health nurses, disease intervention specialists, epidemiologists, program managers, laboratory personnel, informaticians, communication and policy experts, and any other positions as may be required to prevent, prepare for, and respond to covid-19." $7.6 billion to community health centers and federally qualified health centers to combat covid-19, including promotion, distribution, and administration of the covid-19 vaccine; covid-19 tracing and mitigation; covid-19-related equipment; and covid-19 outreach and education. $7.5 billion to the centers for disease control and prevention (cdc) for covid-19 vaccine distribution, administration, and tracking, including preparation of community vaccination centers and mobile vaccine units and acceleration of vaccine deployment. the bill funds 100,000 public health workers for vaccination outreach and contact tracing. $6.05 billion for "expenses related to research, development, manufacturing, production and purchase of vaccines". $5.4 billion to the indian health services. $3.5 billion in block grants to states, evenly split between the community mental health services block grant program and the substance abuse prevention treatment block grant program. $1.75 billion for genomic sequencing, analytics, and disease surveillance. $1 billion to the u.s. department of health and human services for vaccine confidence programs to increase vaccination rates. approximately $750 million on global health security to fight covid-19 and other emerging infectious diseases. $500 million to the food and drug administration to evaluate vaccine performance and facilitate vaccine oversight and manufacturing. $330 million for teaching health centers with graduate medical education programs. $500 million to the cdc for public health surveillance and analytics, including a modernization of the u.s. disease warning system to predict covid-19 "hot spots" and emerging public health threats. $200 million for nursing loan repayment programs. $100 million for the medical reserve corps. $100 million for a behavioral health workforce education and training program. $80 million for mental and behavioral health training. $86 billion for a rescue package/bailout for approximately 185 multiemployer pension funds (usually pension plans set up by a union and industry) that are close to insolvency. the pension funds collectively cover 10.7 million workers. transportation $30.5 billion in grants to public transit and commuter rail agencies across the country to mitigate major decreases in ridership and fare revenue due to the covid-19 pandemic. this includes $6 billion to the mta in the new york area (the u.s.'s largest public transit agency) and $1.4 billion to wmata, vre and marc in the d.c. area. $15 billion for airlines and airline contractors for a third extension of payroll support program (which would otherwise have expired at the end of march 2021). the extension will prevent the furlough of more than 27,000 aviation employees. $8 billion for u.s. airports. $2 billion for amtrak. $10.4 billion for agriculture and usda, of which: $4 billion (39% of total agricultural expenditures) and $1 billion (9.7% of total agricultural expenditures) goes to debt forgiveness and outreach/support, respectively, for socially disadvantaged farmers. experts identified the relief bill as the most important legislation for african-american farmers since the civil rights act of 1964, benefiting many who were not fully compensated by the pigford settlements. $3.6 billion (35% of total agricultural expenditures) for covid-19 response (e.g., for agricultural and supply chain workers) and for the purchase and distribution of food. $800 million (7.7% of total agricultural expenditures) for food for peace. $500 million (4.8% of total agricultural expenditures) for usda-administered emergency rural development grants for rural healthcare. cybersecurity $1.85 billion for cybersecurity funding as a response to the solarwinds hack. $1 billion will go to the general services administration's technology modernization fund which will help the federal government launch new cyber and information technology programs. $650 million will go to the cybersecurity and infrastructure security agency to improve its risk mitigation services. $200 million will go to the u.s. digital service. healthcare subsidizes 100% of premiums for cobra recipients from april 1 to september 30, 2021. due to these subsidies, at least 2.2 million additional people will enroll in cobra in 2021. changes to aca removing the welfare cliff by removing the income limit on premium subsidies. instead, anyone can be eligible for premium subsidies if the cost of their premiums is more than 8.5% of their income. these subsidies will not affect rich households. increasing subsidies that are already available to low-income households. an estimated 2.5 million uninsured people will get covered due to these changes. additionally, about 3.4 million of the lowest income enrollees will see their premiums fall by 100%. create a special rule whereby anyone who qualifies for unemployment automatically qualifies for the maximum amount of subsidies. protect any aca subsidy recipient from clawbacks due to income fluctuations in 2020. changes to medicaid and chip requires coverage of covid-19 vaccines, vaccine counseling and covid-19 treatment. expands state options for covid-19 testing for the uninsured. allows states to give 12 months of post-partum coverage for new mothers. introduce new incentives for states to expand medicaid coverage. impact the bill's economic-relief provisions are overwhelmingly geared toward low-income and middle-class americans, who will benefit from (among other provisions) the direct payments, the bill's expansion of low-income tax credits, child-care subsidies, expanded health-insurance access, extension of expanded unemployment benefits, food stamps, and rental assistance programs. the bill contains little direct aid to high income-earners, who largely retained their jobs during the covid-19 economic shock and bolstered their savings. biden's administration crafted the plan in part because economic aid to lower-income and middle-income americans (who are more likely to immediately spend funds on bills, groceries, and housing costs to avoid eviction or foreclosure) is more likely to stimulate the u.s. economy than aid to higher-earners (who are more likely to save the money). the institute on taxation and economic policy found that the stimulus bill's direct payments, child tax credit expansion, and earned income tax credit expansion would boost the income of the poorest one-fifth of americans by nearly $3,590. the congressional budget office estimated that the bill's increase in health insurance subsidies would lead to 1.3 million previously uninsured americans gaining health insurance coverage. an analysis by columbia university's center on poverty and social policy estimated that the original stimulus proposal would reduce overall u.s. poverty by a third, reduce child poverty by 57.8% and reduce the adult poverty rate by more than 25%. however these estimates relied in part upon a minimum wage increase that was not included in the final bill, meaning effects on poverty may be notably different from those anticipated in that study. the tax policy center wrote that, for households making under $25,000, the bill would cut their taxes by an average of $2,800, which would boost their after-tax income by 20%. additionally, low-income households with children would see an average tax cut of about $7,700, and this would boost their after-tax income by 35%. middle-income households will also see an average tax cut of about $3,350, and this would increase their after-tax income by 5.5%. overall, about 70% of the bill's tax benefits will go to households making under $91,000. inflationary impact commentators in the press have said that the american rescue plan act of 2021 has likely contributed to the inflation—felt in the form of higher prices—experienced across the united states in 2022. a march 2022 study released by the federal reserve bank of san francisco estimated that u.s. fiscal support measures designed to counteract the severity of the pandemic's economic effect (among them, the american rescue plan and the 2020 cares act) may have raised core inflation about 3 percentage points by the end of 2021, noting that this estimate falls "in the upper range of findings from other recent research". at the same time, the study notes that these measures may have prevented "outright deflation and slower economic growth, the consequences of which would have been harder to manage". the study estimates the effect on inflation from the aggregate of all u.s. fiscal support measures and does not give estimates for the effects of individual measures. nobel prize in economics-winner paul krugman stated in an op-ed for the new york times in july 2022 that he was among many economists that foresaw little risk due to the american rescue plan but that resulted being wrong about it. response congress the relief package received universal support from democrats and universal opposition from republicans, passing on a party-line vote. some house democratic progressives expressed disappointment with some changes to the relief package made in the senate (such as the removal of the $15 minimum wage) to win over moderate democratic support, but continued to support the package. republicans in congress opposed the bill, claiming it to be unaffordable, and claiming the bill only benefitted democratic-led states. though the bill provided some funding for republican-leaning states, 61% of aid would go to states that voted for biden in november 2020. clinton administration treasury secretary and harvard university president lawrence summers called the bill “the least responsible macroeconomic policy we’ve had in the last 40 years,” arguing the law would lead to substantial inflation (and possibly a recession, if the federal reserve responded by raising interest rates). later data would show a large surge in inflation. although the importance of the law in causing this has been disputed, price increases rose to the highest levels in 40 years, as summers had argued. some democrats argued the bill’s provisions were similar to policies republicans had supported in the trump administration; republicans responded by arguing that such measures were no longer necessary, as the economy was no longer in a recession and covid-19 vaccines were now being administered. president biden president joe biden advocated for fast-tracking the stimulus package with optimally bipartisan support. in early february 2021, biden criticized republicans for not seeking a bipartisan compromise on a final aid bill, and said the republicans were wilfully obstructing his proposal. at the time, biden signaled openness to passing the legislation without any support from congressional republicans. biden stated that he could not, "in good conscience," make concessions to republicans who he said propose to either "do nothing or not enough" as republicans complain biden is forsaking his promises on bipartisanship and unity. furthermore, biden noted that "ll of a sudden, many of them have rediscovered fiscal restraint and the concern