Congress Reaches New Stimulus Deal: What That Means For NC

NORTH CAROLINA — For months, members of Congress have dug in their heels, avoided concessions and failed to deliver a much-needed federal relief package aimed at helping cash-strapped Americans in North Carolina and others get through the fallout of the coronavirus pandemic.

Now, it appears negotiators in Washington, D.C., finally have an agreement.

For much of last week, members of Congress worked through the last remaining holdups on a long-delayed $900 billion COVID-19 economic relief package. At the center of the package would be billions in aid to small businesses, extended federal and state unemployment benefits, direct payments to Americans, and additional funds to renters and people needing food aid.

The package, while certainly long overdue, comes just as a new report confirms that nearly 8 million Americans have fallen into poverty since this summer, in part because emergency benefit programs expired. More Americans are filing for unemployment benefits, and the pace of hiring has slowed.

Should the coronavirus relief package pass both the House and Senate, here are five things it could do for people and businesses in North Carolina:

1) Send direct payments to people in North Carolina.

While initially not part of negotiations, direct payments were added to the package after negotiators failed to come to an agreement on aid for state and local governments. Striking that from the measure freed up $160 billion to be used for direct payments.

Currently, the package is expected to send one-time checks to millions of Americans below a certain income threshold. The amount will likely be between $600 and $700, The Washington Post reported.

Stimulus payments have received endorsements from President Donald Trump as well as progressives including Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who remains dissatisfied about the overall package, according to The Associated Press.

The CARES Act passed in March provided for $1,200 payments per adult and $500 per child.

Additionally, the package is expected to defer federal student loan payments until April 2021, a policy that could impact about 40 million student loan borrowers.

2) Extend federal unemployment benefits for people out of work.

If approved, the relief package would include a $300-per-week bonus federal jobless benefit in addition to the renewal of soon-to-expire state benefits.

The CARES Act passed in March gave $600 per week to people who were out of work, on top of their usual state unemployment check. When this funding lapsed at the end of July, Trump signed an executive action to pay a $300-per-week bonus. That money will run out Dec. 31.

The need for additional unemployment aid was underscored Thursday by the release of weekly unemployment numbers — nationwide, 885,000 people applied for jobless benefits last week, the highest weekly total since September.

The new proposed unemployment aid would cover jobless Americans until April 2021.

In North Carolina, the most recent jobless numbers show about 308,700 residents, or about 6.2 percent of the workforce, are currently unemployed.

3) Renew an eviction ban for renters.

The new proposal would protect renters from evictions through Jan. 31, 2021. It would do this by providing $25 billion to state and local governments to pay for rent and utilities.

The CARES Act initially put in place a nationwide ban on evictions for renters who were late on rent. Trump extended the ban, but that extension, too, is set to expire at the end of the year.

In late October, North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper signed an executive order aimed at strengthening eviction moratorium protections offered by a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention order for tenants at risk of evictions. Under the state order, landlords are required to provide those tenants blank CDC forms that allow them to attest to financial hardship. The state order ends Dec. 31, 2020.

4) Provide aid to people in North Carolina who are hungry.

A report by Vox said the package will provide $13 billion to help fund a monthly 15 percent increase in individual SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) benefits, aid for children who received food support at school, and money for other programs including Meals on Wheels and WIC (Women, Infants and Children).

Demand for such aid has spiked dramatically during the pandemic, Vox reports, with food banks across the country facing overwhelming need in recent months.

Nationwide, Feeding America predicts that 39 weeks of historic joblessness and business failures due to the coronavirus pandemic will likely leave as many as 50 million people nationwide without enough to eat.

North Carolina is not exempt from the hunger crisis facing our country.

The cumulative effect of 39 weeks of historic joblessness and business failures due to the coronavirus pandemic has led to food insecurity for about 17.6 percent of North Carolina, or about 1.8 million state residents, according to Feeding America.

5) Extend Paycheck Protection Program funding for small businesses in North Carolina.

The new proposal would add $300 billion to the Paycheck Protection Program, which offers business owners forgivable loans as a way to help cover employees’ wages instead of laying them off.

The Paycheck Protection Program is geared toward businesses with 300 or fewer employees that have seen a 30 percent or higher decrease in revenue in any quarter this year. A report by Fortune said almost 100,000 small businesses have already closed permanently during the pandemic.

More than 16,000 North Carolina businesses and non-profits received loans from the program.