WASHINGTON — Congress has approved a $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill, placing the package on President Joe Biden's desk for signing Wednesday.
The headline of the bill is $1,400 direct payments for single taxpayers. Individuals earning up to $75,000 will get the full amount, as would married couples with incomes up to $150,000.
House Budget Committee Chair John Yarmuth introduced the package, calling its passing "a monumental day" for the United States.
"This aggressive plan will save lives and help defeat this pandemic once and for all," Yarmuth said. "It will provide economic relief to nearly every American family and hard-working individual, get vaccines into the arms of millions of Americans, and get our schools open safely."
In addition to direct payments, the bill will extend expanded unemployment benefits, provide funding to local governments and give around $130 billion to help schools reopen.
Yarmuth said Kentucky will receive an estimated $4.24 billion in state and local government funding. In specific, the legislation will provide:
- $2.44 billion in state funding focused on fighting COVID-19 and its economic impacts,
- $866 million distributed among Kentucky's 120 counties,
- $444 million in funding dedicated to ensuring that cities with more than 50,000 residents can meet health and economic needs,
- $306 million in municipal funding distributed to cities and towns with populations of less than 50,000 residents and
- $185 million in capital projects funding to support projects directly enabling work, education, and health monitoring in response to the pandemic.
"It’s hard to overstate the tremendous impact this legislation will have in our communities," Yarmuth said. "We will have the resources needed to not only rebuild our local economy, but to do it in way that will make us stronger than before the pandemic hit."
Yarmuth said local relief will amount to an estimated $433 million in total funding going to Louisville — $285 million of it going to the city as part of metro city funding and $148 million going to Jefferson County for county funding.
Billions of dollars will also go toward making sure Kentucky schools can safely reopen, as well as grants and relief to help students and families who may be impacted by the pandemic.
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