[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 46 (Thursday, March 11, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1496-S1498]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    AMERICAN RESCUE PLAN ACT OF 2021

  Mr. LEAHY. Madam President, last week the Congress passed and 
tomorrow the President will sign into law the American Rescue Plan Act 
of 2021, which includes $10 billion to respond to COVID-19 
internationally. While this is a tiny fraction of the $1.9 trillion in 
the Rescue Plan, it is critically necessary. As long as the virus 
continues to spread and mutate into more transmissible and deadlier 
variants in other countries, it will remain a threat to Americans.
  Within that amount, $580 million is included to support the U.N. 
Global Humanitarian Response Plan for COVID-19 through U.S. voluntary 
contributions to international organizations, including the World 
Health Organization, the World Food Programme, UNICEF, the U.N. High 
Commissioner for Refugees, and other international organizations.
  UNICEF offers critical operations and technical assistance to 
ministries of health and education around the world as countries 
continue to adapt their health and education activities to meet COVID-
19 protocols. UNICEF also focuses on strengthening risk communication 
and community engagement to ensure that women, children, and their 
families know how to prevent COVID-19; providing supplies to 
communities and educational and health facilities to support the 
prevention and treatment of COVID-19, including WASH supplies and 
personal protective equipment; and ensuring that children and women 
have continued access to basic healthcare, education, child protection, 
and gender-based violence services, including ensuring access to 
immunizations, prenatal and postnatal care, and HIV care in an 
environment safe from infection by the virus.
  It is obvious that UNICEF has a critical role to play in the 
international COVID-19 response. The same can be said of the World Food 
Programme, UNHCR, and WHO. I am pleased that Congress was able to 
provide additional funding for these and other international 
organizations to support their lifesaving work.
  Mr. BROWN. Madam President, I rise to talk about the passage of the 
historic American Rescue Plan. This monumental legislation will help us 
get this pandemic under control and help families and small businesses 
weather the economic crisis. It includes critical funding for vaccine 
production, testing, and additional PPE. It includes the resources we 
need to help kids get back to school safely, enhanced unemployment to 
help workers who are suffering during this pandemic, food assistance 
for low-income families, and stimulus checks to help make ends meet 
with hours cut and expenses rising. It also makes long-overdue 
enhancements to EITC and CTC that will help lift millions of children 
out of poverty. And it provides resources to keep families in their 
homes during this pandemic.
  First, it provides critical assistance for renters and people 
experiencing or at risk of homelessness. Before the pandemic, an 
estimated 568,000 people, many with underlying health conditions, were 
already experiencing homelessness. One out of four renters was paying 
more than half of their income in rent, leaving too many making 
impossible choices between essential expenses or even at risk of 
eviction. COVID-19 has both revealed and exacerbated these housing 
problems. One out of five renters reports being behind on rent, and 
renters were an estimated $57 billion dollars behind on rent as of 
January.
  I am pleased that the Senate-approved bill includes new resources to 
assist people experiencing or at risk of homelessness through emergency 
housing vouchers and homelessness assistance and supportive services 
administered by the Department of Housing and Urban Development, as 
well as emergency assistance for rural housing for residents of 
properties financed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Rural 
Housing Service.
  In addition, the American Rescue Plan provides $21.6 billion in 
emergency rental assistance through States, localities, and 
territories, including $2.5 billion reserved for high-need grantees.
  This funding supplements the $25 billion in emergency rental 
assistance funding provided by Congress in December, Section 501 of the 
Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021, Public Law 116-260, Section 501, 
but includes additional flexibilities to ensure grantees can better 
stabilize renters. The Biden administration should again extend the 
Federal eviction moratorium that expires on March 31, 2021, so that 
grantees have time to distribute assistance to renters in need to 
prevent evictions and displacement.
  With the emergency rental assistance provided in this bill, renters 
will be able to receive up to 18 months of financial assistance, 
including future rent and utility payments, including pad rents in 
manufactured housing communities, and unpaid rent or utility bills that 
have accumulated. Renters can also receive assistance for

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other housing-related expenses necessary to promote housing stability, 
such as but not limited to security deposits; relocation and rental 
fees for displaced households; late fees related to a former or current 
rental unit; and internet service provided to the rental unit. Section 
3201 does not preclude grantees from continuing payment processes 
provided in section 501. These processes are the provisions that govern 
payments of rent and utility assistance either to property owners and 
utilities or directly to tenants and the application for assistance by 
landlords and owners under subsection (f). Additionally, funds can be 
used to provide housing stability services, such as but not limited to 
case management; tenant-landlord mediation; legal services related to 
eviction and housing stability; housing counseling; fair housing 
counseling; and specialized services for people with disabilities, 
people with chronic health conditions, seniors, or survivors of 
domestic violence or human trafficking. Similar to section 501, section 
3201 permits grantees to use a certain percentage of their funds on 
administrative costs to support eligible program activities, including 
the provision of financial assistance and housing stability services. 
After deducting the amount grantees may use on program administration, 
grantees may also use up to 10 percent of their funds on providing 
housing stability services. As in section 501, funds are provided to 
States to assist renters throughout the State, including in rural 
communities, as well as cities and counties that receive a direct 
allocation.
  Given how badly these resources are needed, the Department of 
Treasury and grantees must do all they can to implement this rental 
assistance program quickly and successfully and not create any 
artificial barriers to assistance. With some benefits provided by the 
CARES Act, documentation requirements to prove eligibility have erected 
artificial barriers that have cut people off from the benefits Congress 
intended them to receive. Indeed, diverse stakeholders, including 
tenant advocates, landlords, and State and local government agencies, 
have raised concerns that such requirements that have been applied in 
existing emergency rental assistance programs have prevented renters 
from completing applications and are overly burdensome for program 
staff. It is critical that any renters who are struggling to pay their 
rent during the pandemic are not barred from accessing this assistance 
due to cumbersome documentation requirements or other barriers. An 
applicant's simple attestation should be the only documentation 
required to meet program eligibility requirements. Additionally, 
grantees may continue the income assessment procedures pursuant to 
section 501 to determine eligibility.
  The COVID-19 pandemic has had broad impacts on individuals, families, 
businesses, availability of government services and supports, and 
throughout our economy. It has changed where and how many people work. 
It has made it more difficult not just to keep a job but also to find a 
new job, to get enough hours, and to find childcare or someone to care 
for a sick loved one. All of these challenges brought on by the 
pandemic have made it more difficult for families to make ends meet. 
These effects are likely to exist for months and years to come. Given 
these factors, Treasury and grantees should broadly read the 
requirement regarding the connection between a renter's hardship and 
the coronavirus pandemic when determining the eligibility of the 
renter. As the language states, the hardship must have occurred 
``during or due, directly or indirectly, to the coronavirus pandemic.'' 
The economic effects of the pandemic will be felt long after the virus 
is contained. Certain industries and communities have been particularly 
hard-hit from the pandemic and will likely take years to recover. 
Treasury should issue guidance that makes this point clear to ensure 
renters are not cut off from needed assistance as they try to recover 
from economic downturns caused by the pandemic.
  Section 3201 also provides that after October 1, 2022, certain 
grantees may expend funds on ``other affordable rental housing and 
eviction prevention activities'' that benefit any very low-income 
renter household. Such activities can include but are not limited to 
affordable housing development, preservation, or acquisition, and other 
forms of rental assistance and eviction prevention activities targeted 
to very low-income renters.
  To ensure continuity in monitoring funds provided by section 3201 and 
section 501 and ease of grantee implementation, Treasury should 
maintain the same reporting requirements that were included in section 
501.
  The committee encourages the administration to create and maintain a 
central public repository of information on State and local rental 
assistance programs, which at a minimum identifies the program's 
administering agency and contact information, so that renters and 
landlords can more easily identify available assistance.
  Finally, to the extent there is any confusion with regard to the 
taxability of assistance, Treasury, in consultation with the Internal 
Revenue Service, should provide guidance to clarify this for grantees 
and program participants.
  The American Rescue Plan also provides vital home ownership 
assistance to families across the country. This much-needed assistance 
would not have been possible without the dedication and diligence of 
our colleague, Senator Jack Reed, who is the author of the Homeowner 
Assistance Fund we have enacted. For nearly a year, he has been leading 
the charge to keep families in their homes and avoid another 
foreclosure crisis, and I am grateful to him for his leadership on this 
issue.
  There is no question that homeowners are struggling as a result of 
this pandemic. In January, more than 3.3 million homeowners were more 
than 30 days behind on their payments or in foreclosure. More than 2 
million households are more than 3 months behind, putting them at risk 
of foreclosure. Many of these households are in forbearance, but others 
are not. And the number of homeowners behind on mortgage payments 
doesn't account for other costs, such as utility and insurance bills, 
that are building up not just for homeowners with a mortgage but also 
for the more than one-third of homeowners who own their home outright.
  Black, Latino, and Asian households are more likely to report that 
they have fallen behind on their mortgages. As with so much else in 
this health and economic crisis, the burden is falling the heaviest on 
the communities of color and low-income communities.
  We cannot repeat the mistakes of the past. We cannot allow this 
pandemic to become a housing crisis that exacerbates economic 
inequality and widens the racial home ownership gap. This time, we must 
give communities the tools to help homeowners weather this crisis and 
remain in their homes.
  Many homeowners who are in forbearance have loans backed by a Federal 
agency or Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. Throughout this pandemic, these 
agencies have extended forbearance and post-forbearance options to help 
borrowers resume making regular payments at some point or get an 
affordable loan modification. Many borrowers in forbearance today will 
also be able to get back on track with these existing options. But 
these options won't help all homeowners. Many homeowners do not have 
the benefit of the loan workout options that come with a federally 
backed or Fannie Mae- or Freddie Mac-backed loan, have accumulated 
other utility or housing costs, or have a manufactured home loan that 
is not a mortgage. And still other homeowners have a federally backed 
loan but, given the severe disruption to our economy, just need more 
help than is available through their mortgage program. These homeowners 
will need direct assistance, and they will need it quickly.
  That is exactly what the Homeowner Assistance Fund will do. The 
American Rescue Plan Act's Homeowner Assistance Fund creates a nearly 
$10 billion fund at the Department of the Treasury to provide resources 
to States, Tribal governments, and Tribally designated housing entities 
to help homeowners staying in their homes. Treasury will allocate funds 
among the States and other eligible recipients, taking into account the 
number of individuals in a State who have been unemployed in recent 
months, as well as the number of homeowners who have fallen at least a 
month behind on their mortgage, regardless of whether they are in 
forbearance, or who are in foreclosure. States and eligible recipients

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will use the funds Congress has provided in this bill for direct relief 
to eligible homeowners and to set up, staff, and administer the 
programs providing that relief.
  As Congress has established in the bill, direct relief through the 
Homeowner Assistance Fund can include help with missed mortgage 
payments, financial help to make a mortgage modification viable, 
assistance with broadband and utility costs; and other relief that 
homeowners need to get back on track financially. At least 60 percent 
of a State or other eligible entity's funds must go to households at or 
below 100 percent of area median income or households below 100 percent 
of the national median income, whichever is higher, to ensure that help 
reaches those homeowners who need it most. Including homeowners with 
incomes of up to 100 percent of the national median income when that is 
higher than the area median income will ensure that funds adequately 
reach homeowners in Tribal areas and rural areas, where localized 
incomes may be lower. Remaining assistance funds are targeted to 
socially disadvantaged individuals, including homeowners of color, who 
too often are left behind in our economy and who data indicate are at 
disproportionate risk of foreclosure.
  While Congress has authorized the program, the intent is for Treasury 
to play a vital role in making this program a reality by administering 
the Homeowner Assistance Fund prudently and flexibly to keep the 
greatest number of families in their homes. In the days ahead, Treasury 
must provide States and other eligible entities with the certainty they 
need to accept and distribute these funds efficiently. Treasury must 
set clear expectations for the types of eligible programs States can 
administer and the guidelines States must follow to administer these 
programs equitably and in accordance with the law. That includes 
ensuring States and other eligible entities understand up front that 
they can use a portion of the funds provided through the Homeowner 
Assistance Fund to establish and administer their programs, so that 
States can immediately get the systems and staffing in place to put 
funds into the hands of the people who need them. And if there is any 
uncertainty among States or individuals who might apply for assistance, 
Treasury should immediately clarify that any assistance received 
through the Homeowner Assistance Fund is not income for a homeowner.
  Treasury must also establish reporting to ensure that funds are 
reaching the households who need them most. Both to comply with the law 
and to ensure funds are being used equitably, Treasury must establish 
periodic public reporting by State of key metrics, including the amount 
of funds disbursed, the acceptance rate of applicants, reasons 
applicants are denied, the number of individuals assisted, the number 
of households assisted by income range, the types of assistance 
provided, the average amount of assistance per household, and household 
outcomes. These data should also be assessed by race, ethnicity, 
gender, and other factors to determine compliance with all laws, 
including the Fair Housing Act. While Fair Housing Act enforcement 
remains the jurisdiction of the Department of Housing and Urban 
Development and the Department of Justice, this program and all housing 
programs must be developed and administered to comply with this 
foundational civil rights law.
  States and other eligible recipients will also be vital partners in 
getting relief out quickly. Too many homeowners have been struggling 
for nearly a year. We need to get them relief now. Following the 2008 
economic crisis, State housing finance agencies in select States were 
great partners in providing direct relief to homeowners through the 
Hardest Hit Fund. In my home State of Ohio, the Ohio Housing Finance 
Agency helped tens of thousands of people with mortgage payment 
assistance, modifications with assistance, and more. We need all States 
to be prepared to get these funds out quickly and without unnecessary 
barriers. Treasury can help facilitate this with clear guidance and 
templates that allow States to put out funds without delay.
  I will continue to fight for the assistance people experiencing 
homelessness, renters, and homeowners need to stay in their homes. I 
also look forward to working to successfully deploy the historic 
resources provided in this bill.

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