H.R.1319, also known as the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, narrowly passed the Senate with an amendment on March 6 and was approved by the House on March 10. The bill as originally passed by the House on February 27, 2021 contained a host of relief packages to address COVID-19's impact on “the economy, public health, state and local governments, individuals, and businesses.” The original bill from the end of February also included several provisions less directly tied to the pandemic, such as raising the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2025 and increased Medicaid coverage. While not all provisions made it through the Senate—the minimum wage amendment was removed and certain spending amounts were slightly reduced—many of the provisions in the original House bill remain.
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO), a nonpartisan agency dedicated to estimating costs for legislation, stated that the version of the bill originally passed in the House at the end of February would cost $1.2 trillion in fiscal year 2021 and a total of $1.9 trillion over the next 10 years. The CBO has not yet released revised cost estimates for the Senate version of the bill, which eliminated the minimum wage provision, cut spending on stimulus checks, unemployment benefits, and several other items while leaving other large expenditures intact, such as assistance to state and local governments. This article explores the spending breakdown in the original $1.9 trillion version of the bill as passed by the House on February 27, 2021, though this total cost estimate and specific components may change as estimates are revised to incorporate amendments to the bill, such as the elimination of the minimum wage provision.
