WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Ben Cardin and Chris Van Hollen (both D-Md.) today announced estimated top-line funding Maryland will receive following the Senate’s passage of the American Rescue Plan. This package will bring significant resources directly to Maryland to help workers, families, small businesses, and the State and local governments combat COVID-19 and recover from the health and economic impacts of the virus.
“We fought for this bill because it is going to bring real, concrete relief to Maryland and our nation at a time when we need it most. This pandemic is far from over,” said Senator Cardin. “The American Rescue Plan makes strategic investments in lifting up the hardest hit families and small businesses to help our communities recover. We are investing in our future by investing in vaccines, testing, contact tracing, public health, and all we need to finally get control of and bring an end to this public health crisis. We tackle the economic and social devastation by lifting families and children out of poverty, extending help for the unemployed, food insecure, and those left without health insurance or struggling to pay rent or mortgage. Small businesses, restaurants, seafood processors and nonprofits are going to get the lifeline they need to make it through this public health crisis. Importantly, the American Rescue Plan will provide desperately needed resources to state and local governments and our courageous front-line workers. Americans support this package because they know how much of a real difference it will make in their lives and their communities.”
“From direct payments to Marylanders working to make ends meet, to an expansion of the Child Tax Credit and Earned Income Tax Credit that will lift thousands of Marylanders out of poverty, the American Rescue Plan is the bold relief our state needs at this moment. This sweeping package also includes critical funds that will go directly to our state and local governments, allowing them to ramp up vaccination efforts and ensure frontline workers stay on the job, while providing more resources for the equitable distribution of the vaccine nationwide. I was proud to fight for Maryland’s priorities within this bill, including important provisions to extend unemployment insurance, funding to help close the digital divide, resources to get our students safely back into the classroom, and support to allow small businesses and public transit networks to weather this storm. Americans called for action, and with the American Rescue Plan we answered those calls,” said Senator Van Hollen.
American Rescue Plan: Maryland Wins
State & Local Government Funding
To help our state and local governments fund emergency services, distribute the vaccine, employ frontline workers, and more, the American Rescue Plan will provide:
- $3.87 Billion in direct funding to the State of Maryland
- The State will also receive an additional $169 Million for capital projects directly enabling work, education and health monitoring, including remote options in response to the public health emergency
- $1.173 Billion in direct funding to Maryland’s county governments
- $1.14 Billion in direct funding to Maryland’s city and municipal governments
Totaling in: $6.355 Billion directly to our state (See below for further breakdown by city and county)
Direct Payments
To help Marylanders stay afloat during this economic downturn, the American Rescue Plan will provide:
- 2,516,312 Maryland households with direct payments
Totaling $6.25 Billion in direct payments for Marylanders
Child Tax Credit
To protect our most vulnerable, the American Rescue Plan expands the Child Tax Credit, resulting in a historic reduction in child poverty across the United States. In our state it will:
- Lift over 52,000 Maryland children out of poverty
- Benefit 1.1 million children – or 85% – of Maryland’s children
Earned Income Tax Credit
To support our low-income workers, the American Rescue Plan expands the Earned Income Tax Credit, benefiting:
- 255,000 Maryland workers
Enhanced Unemployment Benefits
The American Rescue Plan will extend expanded unemployment benefits through September 6th that would have expired on March 14th, which will benefit:
- More than 300,000 Marylanders currently relying on unemployment benefits
Education & Child Care
To help get Maryland students safely back into the classroom, while providing our schools and educators the resources they need, the American Rescue Plan includes:
- $1.95 Billion for Maryland K-12 education
- $1.756 Billion for Maryland’s local school districts
- $549 Million for Maryland institutions of higher education
To support early childhood education in our underserved and most vulnerable communities, the American Rescue Plan includes:
- $11 Million in Head Start funding
To help Marylanders afford child care and to help ensure child care providers can continue operating safely, the American Rescue Plan includes:
- An increase in the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit to up to $4,000 for one child or $8,000 for two or more children, and makes the credit fully refundable. This would significantly ease the burden of child care costs for many Maryland families, who pay on average $15,335 annually for infant care and $10,254 for the care of 4-year olds.
- $194 Million in supplemental Child Care Development Block Grants
- $310 Million in Child Care Stabilization Grants
- An additional $9 Million in Child Care Entitlement to States funding
Totaling $513 Million in Maryland child care funding
The legislation also includes significant national investments in closing the digital divide and supporting students with disabilities through IDEA, two priorities Senator Van Hollen has repeatedly pushed for. The bill provides:
- Over $7 Billion for the Federal Communications Committee’s E-Rate program, which will now be able to provide funding to elementary and secondary schools and libraries to supply Wi-Fi hotspots, modems, routers, and internet-enabled devices, including internet service through such equipment, to students, staff, and patrons
- More than $2.5 Billion nation-wide in state grants to support K-12 students with disabilities, $200 million to support preschoolers with disabilities, and $250 million for infants and toddlers under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act
Health Care
In addition to funds for state and local governments, to help get more vaccines in the arms of Americans efficiently and equitably and to beat the COVID-19 pandemic, nationwide, the American Rescue Plan includes:
- $7.5 Billion for vaccine distribution and administration
- $1 Billion for vaccine confidence activities
- $7.6 Billion for community health centers
- $6.05 Billion for research, development, manufacturing, production, and purchase of vaccines, therapeutics, and ancillary medical products and supplies
- $500 Million for FDA to continue to evaluate performance, safety, and effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines and therapeutics.
- $10 Billion for Defense Production Act to procure essential PPE and other medical equipment.
- $47.8 Billion for COVID-19 testing, tracing, and mitigation activities.
- $1.75 Billion for SARS-COV-2 genomic sequencing and surveillance (which will help monitor and identify new strains/variants)
- $500 Million for CDC data modernization.
- $7.66 Billion for public health workforce
To ensure health care affordability and access nationwide, the American Rescue Plan:
- Lowers or eliminates health insurance premiums for millions of Americans who buy insurance through the marketplaces through increased tax credits, reducing premiums by potentially thousands of dollars each year
- Subsidizes 100% of premiums for COBRA continuation coverage to help people who experienced job loss maintain their health coverage
- Allows states to provide Medicaid coverage for one year postpartum to address the maternal health crisis that is disproportionately affecting communities of color
- Increases federal support through Medicaid for home- and community-based services.
- Provides $8.5 billion in provider relief to help struggling rural health care providers and ensure access to care in rural areas
To support behavioral health, the American Rescue Plan includes nationally:
- $3 Billion for the Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment and Community Mental Health Block Grants
- $420 Million for Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics
- $140 Million to develop a program to support providers’ mental health and decrease burnout of providers and public safety officers
- $80 Million in new grants for community-based and behavioral health organizations
Small Business
To help our small businesses weather the storm of COVID-19, the American Rescue Plan provides critical support through a number of nationwide emergency programs, targeted at those who need them most. As the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Small Business, Senator Cardin worked to secure these provisions. They include:
- Additional $7.25 Billion for Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and expanded eligibility for digital news outlets
- $15 Billion for Targeted EIDL Advance Program
- $10 Billion for businesses that haven’t received full EIDL advances from past legislation
- $5 Billion for $5,000 payments to businesses that have suffered an economic loss of greater than 50% and employ not more than 10 employees
- $28.6 Billion for the Restaurant Revitalization Fund
- Additional $1.25 Billion for Shuttered Venue Operators Grant Program for live entertainment venues
- $10 Billion for State Small Business Credit Initiative
To date:
- Maryland small business revenue is down over 30% from last year
- Over 39,000 Maryland businesses have now received PPP loans to help them weather the COVID-19 economy
- These loans total in over $3.1 Billion in loans to Maryland businesses
Transportation & Public Transit
To allow our frontline workers to travel to and from work and to ensure our transit systems are able to weather this storm to serve commuters, the American Rescue Plan includes:
- $1.4 Billion for transit systems in the DC metro region including WMATA
- $353.6 Million for transit systems in Baltimore City
- $1.02 Million for transit systems in and around Aberdeen, Md.
- $1.47 Million for transit systems in and around Salisbury, Md.
- $1.44 Million for transit systems in Frederick, Md.
- $1.27 Million for transit in Waldorf, Md.
- $1.13 Million for transit systems in and around Hagerstown, Md.
- $441,234 for transit systems in and around Cumberland, Md.
- $408,639 for transit systems in Westminster-Eldersburg, Md.
- An additional $4.62 Million for rural transit systems throughout Maryland
To allow Maryland airports to weather this storm and to continue delivering crucial supplies to our state, the American Rescue Plan includes funding for the following:
|
Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall |
$ 94,906,280 |
|
Salisbury-Ocean City Wicomico Regional |
$ 1,405,618 |
|
Hagerstown Regional-Richard A Henson Field |
$ 1,168,383 |
|
Martin State |
$ 148,000 |
|
Easton/Newnam Field |
$ 148,000 |
|
Frederick Municipal |
$ 59,000 |
|
Tipton |
$ 59,000 |
|
Montgomery County Airpark |
$ 59,000 |
|
St Mary’s County Regional |
$ 59,000 |
|
Carroll County Regional/Jack B Poage Field |
$ 59,000 |
|
Cambridge-Dorchester Regional |
$ 32,000 |
|
College Park |
$ 32,000 |
|
Greater Cumberland Regional |
$ 32,000 |
|
Garrett County |
$ 32,000 |
|
Ocean City Municipal |
$ 32,000 |
|
Bay Bridge |
$ 32,000 |
Housing and Utility Assistance
To help Marylanders struggling to meet their rental payments, the American Rescue Plan includes:
- $318 Million in Emergency Rental Assistance
- $180 Million to $311 Million for Homeowner Assistance Fund
- $166 Million for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) to help families afford home heating and cooling costs
The legislation also includes significant investments in nationwide programs to support homeless services and prevent utility shut-offs including:
- $9.9 Billion for Mortgage and Utility assistance
- $5 Billion for Emergency Housing Vouchers
- $510 Million for the FEMA Emergency Food and Shelter Program (EFSP) to support homeless services providers in communities across the nation for overnight shelter, meals, assistance to food banks and pantries, one month’s rental or mortgage assistance to prevent evictions, and one month’s utility payments to prevent service cut-offs
- $500 Million to HHS to provide financial assistance to low income consumers and other consumers adversely affected financially by COVID-19 to assist with payments for drinking water and wastewater expenses
- $100 Million for Housing Counseling
- $139 Million for USDA Rural Rental and Rural Homeowner Assistance
Nutrition
To help ensure American families can put food on the table, the American Rescue Plan includes, nationwide:
- A 15% benefit increase in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) through the end of September
- Administration funding for states to enroll increased SNAP caseloads due to the pandemic.
- $25 Million to invest in technological improvements to expand access for families to use their SNAP benefits online
- $37 Million for senior nutrition through the Commodity Supplemental Food Program.
- Increases the value of Supplemental Assistance for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) vouchers for fruits and vegetables to $35 per month for 4 months and includes $390 Million in funding for modernization
- Broadened eligibility for meals for young adults at homeless shelters by increasing the age limit from 18 to 25 for the rest of the pandemic
- Extended Pandemic-Electronic Benefit Transfer (P-EBT) program benefits through the duration of the health emergency, including the summer months, to allow families with children receiving school meals to more easily purchase healthy food during the pandemic
Expanded County, Municipality Breakdown
Counties, in Millions of Dollars:
|
Allegany County |
13.66 |
|
Anne Arundel County |
112.34 |
|
Baltimore City |
115.10 |
|
Baltimore County |
160.46 |
|
Calvert County |
17.94 |
|
Caroline County |
6.48 |
|
Carroll County |
32.67 |
|
Cecil County |
19.95 |
|
Charles County |
31.66 |
|
Dorchester County |
6.19 |
|
Frederick County |
50.34 |
|
Garrett County |
5.63 |
|
Harford County |
49.54 |
|
Howard County |
63.17 |
|
Kent County |
3.77 |
|
Montgomery County |
203.77 |
|
Prince George’s County |
176.36 |
|
Queen Anne’s County |
9.77 |
|
St. Mary’s County |
22.01 |
|
Somerset County |
4.97 |
|
Talbot County |
7.21 |
|
Washington County |
29.30 |
|
Wicomico County |
20.09 |
|
Worcester County |
10.14 |
Cities, In Millions of Dollars (note further data on Maryland cities/towns available upon request):
|
Baltimore |
555.17 |
|
Rockville |
56.90 |
|
College Park |
26.88 |
|
Laurel |
21.42 |
|
Cumberland |
20.18 |
|
Hagerstown |
20.04 |
|
Greenbelt |
19.41 |
|
Westminster |
15.58 |
|
Hyattsville |
15.24 |
|
Takoma Park |
14.81 |
|
Easton |
13.93 |
|
Aberdeen |
13.39 |
|
Elkton |
13.06 |
|
Havre de Grace |
11.72 |
|
Gaithersburg |
11.27 |
|
New Carrollton |
10.81 |
|
Frederick |
10.32 |
|
Cambridge |
10.25 |
|
Salisbury |
9.66 |
|
Bel Air |
8.46 |
|
La Plata |
8.05 |
