Summary
Congressional Democrats are pressing ahead to pass President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan through budget reconciliation. The individual bills approved by various House committees last week will be combined into a single package and marked up by the House Budget Committee this week. The House is expected to vote on, and pass, the reconciliation package next week. Marked up reconciliation language in the House is unlikely to change prior to the House vote.
The $1.9 trillion package provides funding for various public health activities and programs (e.g., COVID-19 vaccines, testing, contact tracing, surveillance); bolsters the public health and health care workforce (e.g., community health centers); supports new and existing initiatives to address mental and behavioral health issues as well as food insecurity exacerbated by the pandemic; and replenishes the Coronavirus Relief Fund to support states and localities. The reconciliation package also contains several measures intended to increase access to health insurance coverage, including expanded eligibility for premium tax credits (e.g., income above 400 percent of federal poverty level, unemployed individuals regardless of income), COBRA subsidies, and a temporary FMAP increase to incentivize states to expand Medicaid.
Considering the looming expiration of temporary federal unemployment benefits on March 14, 2021 and a general sense of urgency, the Senate may bypass the committee markup process and move the anticipated House-approved reconciliation package directly to the floor. Any changes to the package will likely occur there, which may include revisions to comply with the Byrd Rule that prohibits the inclusion of “extraneous matters” in a budget reconciliation, such as those that do not have a substantial impact on federal spending. The Senate is in recess this week.
Looking ahead, the new COVID-19 relief package proposes extending the temporary federal unemployment benefits through August 29, 2021. In addition, other relief measures, such as the COBRA subsidies and increased SNAP and WIC benefits, would expire at the end of FY 2021 on September 30, 2021. Based on these new expiration dates, we may see Congress take action on another COVID-19 relief package in the summer. Negotiations on this package may coincide with discussions on funding for FY 2022, which begin October 1, 2021, and are likely to be complicated by the anticipated return of earmarks. House Appropriations Committee Chair Rosa DeLauro is expected to make an announcement about earmarks as soon as this week.
On Friday (Feb. 19), the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis is slated to convene a hearing to discuss equity issues concerning access to the COVID-19 vaccine. Mitigating health equities amplified by the COVID-19 pandemic is a top priority for the Biden-Harris Administration. The newly announced COVID-19 Health Equity Task Force, chaired by Dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith and tasked with providing recommendations on how to allocate COVID-19 resources and disburse COVID-19 relief funding, will meet next week.