Finally - Agreement on the Federal Budget and Some COVID Relief! As you’ve no doubt have seen in the news, after back-to-back extensions to keep the government running, Congress reached a deal on an omnibus bill that will fund the remainder of the federal fiscal year and provide long-awaited COVID relief. The COVID relief agreement falls short of what is truly needed, but includes many important provisions that will help both families facing hardship and the economy through much of the winter. We offer sincere thanks to those of you who have been fighting for this relief along with us!

Here are highlights of what is included in the bill, of course starting with:

Nutrition Assistance

• Increases SNAP benefits for low-income families by boosting the SNAP maximum benefit by 15 percent for six months through June 30, 2021. According to CBPP this increase will amount to about $27 more in SNAP benefits per person each month, or just over $100 in added monthly food assistance for a family of four.
• Expands the Pandemic-EBT (P-EBT) program to families with children under age 6 who receive food stamps, deeming them "enrolled" in childcare and eligible for benefits. This will ensure that millions of young children can access needed nutrition benefits without the hassle of difficult applications and verification requirements.
• Provides $400 million to food banks and food pantries through The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP), a much-needed boost as CARES Act funding and other current commodities supports near depletion.
• Directs $175 million to nutrition services for seniors, such as Meals on Wheels, and $13 million for the Commodity Supplemental Food Program (CSFP) or “senior boxes” that serve 700,000+ older Americans each month.

For more comprehensive details, see this summary of the nutrition provisions included in the COVID-19 relief bill from the Senate Agriculture Committee’s ranking member, Senator Stabenow (D-MI).

Beyond nutrition assistance the bill provides several other crucial forms of help, including:

• Enhanced unemployment benefits - the jobless would receive an added $300 weekly in federal benefits for 11 weeks, from the end of December through March 14 under the deal (although this is half of the earlier federal boost, which ran out at the end of July).
• Extensions of two other pandemic unemployment programs created in the CARES Act that were set to expire: The Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) program that provides jobless benefits to gig workers, freelancers, independent contractors, the self-employed and certain people affected by the coronavirus; and the Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC) program that provides an additional 13 weeks of benefits to those who exhaust their regular state benefits.
• Stimulus payments of $600 to individuals, with eligible families receiving an additional $600 per child (payments start phasing out for individuals with adjusted gross incomes of more than $75,000; individuals making more than $99,000 will not receive anything).
• Rental assistance: the bill extends the eviction protection that had been set to expire at the end of the year until Jan. 31, 2020 and provides $25 billion in rental assistance for individuals who lost their sources of income during the pandemic.
• Other needed assistance comes in the form of small business loans, funding for schools and childcare; and more.

We know this bill is not perfect and that more needs to be done. Still, we are thankful that the SNAP, unemployment, and stimulus dollars that will soon be on the way will allow families a line of defense against the pandemic surge and economic slowdown that have worsened at year’s end. We can assure you that we will be ready to fight for you and with you in urging the Congress and our new President to quickly get to work on additional relief for those in our communities who will need it well into 2021.

We are providing an update of the legislation Congress passed on Monday, but as of this morning uncertainty remains as to whether President Trump will sign it.

Read more about the long awaited relief bill here at the Wall Street Journal.