House gives final approval to Pres. Biden COVID bill with $1,400 payments

(ATLANTA, GA) BREAKING: The Senate version of the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan provides a $300 weekly boost, extends pandemic aid until Sept. 6 and offers a new tax waiver on the first $10,200 of unemployment benefits for many Americans. The stimulus bill passed through Congress and is now headed for President Joe Biden‘s desk, with plans to be signed into law on Friday at the White House.

The bill, which passed through the House Wednesday, will keep the current weekly enhancement on jobless aid at $300 until Labor Day. It also extends the CARES Act programs Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (for gig workers and those not traditionally eligible for aid) and Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (for the long-term unemployed) until early September. The maximum duration of PUA benefits increases to 79 weeks (up to 86 weeks in high-unemployment states), and for PEUC up to 53 weeks.

Mixed Earner Unemployment Compensation, which gives some workers with both W-2 and 1099 income an extra $100 per week in aid, will also extend to Sept. 6. A new provision introduced by the Senate last week and approved by the House will waive taxes on the first $10,200 of unemployment benefits for individuals who made less than $150,000 in adjusted gross income in 2020.

Married couples who file jointly, earned less than $150,000 in combined adjusted gross income and both collected unemployment insurance benefits in 2020 will have taxes waived on up to $20.400 of UI benefits total. The package approved by Congress differs from Biden’s original proposal in a few key ways: The original provided a $400 weekly UI boost and extended aid until the end of September. However, the value of federally enhanced UI, among other stimulus provisions, was changed in the last week to appease moderate Democrat Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia, who threatened not to support the bill.

At face value, “$300 instead of $400 is worse,” says Heidi Shierholz, the director of policy at the Economic Policy Institute. A $300 weekly boost on top of state UI replaces 74% of the average worker’s lost income, according to News Sources, while a $400 weekly supplement bumps it up to 85% wage recovery. The CARES Act’s $600 weekly enhancement aimed to provide 100% wage replacement for the average worker. But Americans may end up getting similar amounts of jobless aid with the addition of tax relief on UI benefits.