House-Passed American Rescue Plan Act Provides D.C. Retroactive and Equal Funding

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) announced that her District of Columbia priorities were included in the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, which the House passed today. The $1.9 trillion bill includes provisions uniquely vital to the District, including state-, city-, and county-level fiscal relief for the District, since D.C. provides each level of service, and $755 million in retroactive CARES Act fiscal relief to fix D.C.'s treatment as a territory instead of a state for fiscal relief in the CARES Act, considering that D.C. is almost always treated as a state for federal funding. The bill provides D.C. an estimated $2.2 billion in fiscal relief.

In addition to the D.C. provisions, the bill contains many priorities Norton pressed for, including direct payments of $1,400 per person, extended and increased supplemental unemployment benefits and $26 billion in rental assistance. The bill is being considered under budget reconciliation, which means the bill cannot be filibustered in the Senate and therefore needs only a simple majority for passage in the Senate.

"I got D.C. what it needs most in the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, including making D.C. whole for the $755 million in fiscal relief it lost when Republicans categorized it as a territory instead of a state in the CARES Act," Norton said. "The bill arms the District with the tools to fight the coronavirus. It will save lives by increasing the breadth of D.C.'s coronavirus response efforts, it will save jobs by increasing the number of small businesses that will survive this pandemic, and it will provide relief to D.C. families."