The victory lap edition. Help is on the way. Yesterday President Biden signed the American Rescue Plan. The plan is bold enough to meet the twin problems of pandemic and recession; The New York Times calls it “virtually without precedent in recent American politics.”

CHN supporters and allies helped make this happen. You sent more than 350,000 letters to members of the House and Senate demanding they take action. And act they did – the new plan will speed vaccines across the nation. It will reduce the number of people in poverty by over 13 million, including 5.7 million children. Families with low incomes will benefit from expanded tax credits, increased nutrition aid, and housing and utilities assistance. Jobless workers will receive extended UI benefits, and the $1,400 payment headed toward most Americans’ bank accounts will inject needed stimulus into our economy. State and local governments, including territories and tribal jurisdictions, will benefit. Rebuilding our child care industry will allow more women to return to work, and many more Americans will have access to affordable health care. The Brookings-Urban Institute Tax Policy Center tells us that provisions in the American Rescue Plan are refreshingly well-targeted, boosting incomes substantially for the lowest fifth, with no tax breaks for millionaires. That’s in notable contrast to the Trump tax cuts of 2017 (also costing $1.9 trillion), which in 2018 gave the bottom fifth $60, while the top 0.1 percent raked in an average $193,380 each.

Implementation will not be easy and will require due diligence. As the Washington Post notes, “Over the coming weeks, the Biden administration must send another round of one-time checks to millions of families, rethink vast portions of the U.S. tax code, and dole out much-needed sums to help cash-strapped Americans, seeking to swiftly blunt an economic crisis that has left millions without jobs and falling further behind financially.”

And the pandemic is far from over. We continue to see declines in daily infection rates, hospitalizations, and deaths, but experts warn of a possible new surge in cases due to highly infectious variants spreading through the U.S. Super-spreader events are possible – from the college party in Boulder that nearly turned into a riot to the unsanctioned NBA All-Star events in Atlanta. In Florida, hundreds of thousands of students from more than 200 colleges and universities are expected to descend on Miami Beach during Spring Break, which runs from late February to mid-April. States such as Texas and Mississippi are lifting COVID-19 restrictions entirely.

Still. Take a victory lap. You deserve it. Bold crises demand bold action. This time, we met the challenge.

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