Today marks the one-year anniversary of the signing of the American Rescue Plan, federal legislation that provided a lifeline to Illinois families and small businesses while rescuing the entire American economy. Plus, the ARP helped the country mount a national vaccination program, combat COVID-19, safely reopen schools, and more.
Here are just some of the benefits the American Rescue Plan delivered to the people of Illinois:
- $1,400 CHECKS: The ARP distributed $1,400 per-person checks to more than 85% of American households, with 7.6 million Illinoisans eligible to receive checks.
- HEALTH CARE SAVINGS: Over 323,000 Illinoisans are now seeing reduced health care costs through the Health Insurance Marketplace, an 11% increase since the American Rescue Plan passed. Americans saved $800 per person in premiums last year, and thousands per family because of American Rescue Plan affordability measures.
- EDUCATION: Illinois received approximately $5 billion to help safely reopen and upgrade K-12 schools, $1.3 billion for Illinois institutions of higher education, and $39 million for Illinois Head Start programs. U.S. schools have gone from 46% open before ARP to 99% safe and open today:
- CHILD TAX CREDIT: The expanded Child Tax Credit is estimated to benefit 1,473,000 families in Illinois with 2,448,000 children.
- EARNED INCOME TAX CREDIT: The expanded Earned Income Tax Credit will benefit an estimated 616,000 workers without dependent children in Illinois.
- CHILDCARE: Illinois received nearly $800 million for a new childcare stabilization fund to help childcare providers reopen or stay open and $500 million in more flexible funding to help more low-income working families access high-quality care, increase compensation for early childhood workers, and help parents to work.
- SMALL BUSINESS RELIEF: Through the combination of ARP investments and existing emergency relief programs, the Biden-Harris Administration distributed more than $400 billion in critical relief to more than 6 million small businesses nationwide.
“Since it was signed into law a year ago, Democrats’ American Rescue Plan delivered stimulus checks and lowered health care costs for Illinois families while providing essential support to small businesses, schools, child care institutions, and the American economy,” said Democratic Party of Illinois Chair Rep. Robin Kelly. “And yet, not a single Republican in Congress voted for this legislation that has helped so many in our state protect their health, pay their bills, and safely send their kids to school.
“In fact, Republicans are now proposing increasing taxes on millions of Illinoisans and eliminating the Affordable Care Act, which would hit Illinoisans’ wallets even harder as we wrestle with global inflation due to the pandemic and now Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. It’s simple: Democrats are using every tool at our disposal — including the American Rescue Plan — to lower costs for Americans, while Republicans have proposed no solutions other than hiking taxes and raising premiums.”
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