CARES Act

Reduction of economic activity In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, dramatic global reduction in economic activity occurred as a result of the social distancing measures meant to curb the virus. These measures included working from home, widespread cancellation of events, cancellation of classes (or moving in-person to online classes), reduction of travel, and the closure of businesses. In March, it was predicted that, without government intervention, most airlines around the world would go bankrupt. On March 16, the trade group representing the U.S. airline industry requested a $50billion federal bailout. On March 18, the National Restaurant Association wrote the President and Congress with an estimate that "the industry's sales will decline by $225billion during the next three months, which will prompt the loss of between five and seven million jobs," accompanied by a request of $145billion of aid to restaurants. In an effort to gain Republican support for a large stimulus package that, at the time, was envisioned to be about $1trillion, United States Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin told Republican Senators the United States unemployment rate could reach 20% if no government action was taken. Almost 3.3million Americans filed for unemployment in the week ending March 21, "nearly five times more than the previous record of 695,000 set in 1982". On March 20, Goldman Sachs predicted the U.S. gross domestic product would "decline by 24% in the second quarter of 2020 because of the coronavirus pandemic". Deutsche Bank predicted the U.S. economy would shrink by 12.9% in the second quarter of 2020. Initial proposals Two relief bills were signed by President Trump early in 2020: $8 billion on March 6, and $192 billion on March 18. It was apparent to Congress that these would not be sufficient. A much larger third package, which was to become the CARES Act, was negotiated. In mid-March 2020, Democratic politicians Andrew Yang, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Tulsi Gabbard advocated for universal basic income in response to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States; Gabbard suggested that it be a temporary measure until the crisis subsides. On March 13, Democratic representatives Ro Khanna and Tim Ryan introduced legislation to provide payments to low-income citizens during the crisis via an earned income tax credit. On March 16, Republican senators Mitt Romney and Tom Cotton stated their support for a $1,000 basic income, Romney saying it should be a one-time payment to help with short-term costs. On March 17, the Trump administration indicated that some payment would be given to non-millionaires as part of a stimulus package. which focused on expanding unemployment benefits instead of tax rebates. A compromise plan was made to set aside $250billion for tax rebates and the same amount for unemployment. Subsequent initiatives On April 21, 2020, the Senate approved the Paycheck Protection Program and Healthcare Enhancement Act, providing $484 billion in additional funding to the existing Paycheck Protection Program, and President Trump signed it into law three days later. On May 15, 2020, the Democratic-controlled House passed a $3 trillion relief bill called the HEROES Act, but the Republican-controlled Senate never brought it to a vote. There was no other significant economic relief bill until late December 2020 when Congress reached an agreement on a $900 billion stimulus. ==Relief to healthcare corporations: hospitals, manufacturers, and distributors==

of CARES Act relief amounts Provisions The Act includes the following provisions: • Allocates $130 billion to the medical and hospital industries. Also including medical equipment manufacturers. • Reauthorizes and allocates funding to public health programs. • The CARES Act allocated $1 billion to the Defense Department to manufacture personal protective equipment (PPE) and other health products under the Defense Production Act (DPA). Defense Department lawyers determined that the money did not have to be used for pandemic-related purposes, and, within weeks, hundreds of millions of dollars had been spent for other military uses. ==Relief to businesses and organizations==

Loans The Act: • Allocates up to $500billion to the Exchange Stabilization Fund (ESF) for assistance to eligible businesses, states, and municipalities. A business is eligible if it has significant operations in the United States, a majority of its employees based in the United States, and it either has fewer than 10,000 employees or has less than $2.5billion of revenue. Each loan is a minimum of $1million, has a four-year maturity, and restrictions on compensation of highly paid employees. • Creates a $669 billion small-business loan program called the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). (Originally $349billion, the Paycheck Protection Program and Healthcare Enhancement Act added $320billion.) Funds are made available for loans originated between February 15 and June 30, 2020. Most firms with at most 500 employees are eligible for the PPP funds. There are exceptions for all firms whose North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code starts with 72, which includes hotels and restaurants. If each location of a business with a NAICS code starting with 72 has at most 500 employees, such a business is also eligible for PPP funds. Tax credits, tax deferrals, and tax deductions The Act: • Allows employers to defer payment of the employers' share of social security tax for up to two years. Payment of the portion of self-employment tax corresponding to the employer's share of social security tax may also be deferred for up to two years. Payment of these taxes incurred after having a Paycheck Protection Program loan forgiven cannot be deferred, but taxes incurred before the loan forgiveness may continue to be deferred. • Increases the limit for most tax-deductible charitable contributions from 10% to 25% of income for corporations. Increases the limit for tax-deductions for charitable contributions of food inventory from 15% to 25% of income. Such businesses may nonetheless still be eligible for funds distributed through the $669billion Paycheck Protection Program or through the $15billion change to the tax code. Jared Kushner's businesses may generally be eligible for relief under the Economic Stabilization Fund because, according to The New York Times, he usually owns less than 20% of his family's real estate projects. Political donors are eligible for loans under the Paycheck Protection Program. As of May 3, the largest beneficiary of relief loans under this program is the hotel group Ashford Hospitality Trust. The company is run by Monty Bennett, who donated over half a million dollars to Republicans in the current election cycle; Bennett received the loans after hiring lobbyist Jeffrey Miller, who fundraised over $1million for Trump's reelection campaign. The company had applied for $126million in loans and had already received $76million when, following criticism, it announced it would return these funds. Other recipients with ties to the Trump administration include Hallador Energy (employed EPA administrator Scott Pruitt as a lobbyist; received $10million); Flotek Industries (employed ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell as a consultant; received $4.6million); and MiMedx (their former chief executive Parker H. Petit was Trump's 2016 finance chairman in Georgia; received $10million). Clay Lacy Aviation, a California-based private jet charter company that serves business executives and celebrities, received a government grant of nearly $27million that it does not have to repay. In 2016, the company's founder, Clay Lacy, donated $47,000 to the Republican Party after it officially nominated Trump and also donated the maximum allowable $2,700 directly to the Trump campaign. ==Relief to individuals==

Some individuals received checks in the mail, while others received direct deposits in their bank accounts. On May 18, the Treasury Department said that future payments may be issued in the form of prepaid Visa debit cards rather than checks. Tax rebates, tax credits, and tax deductions The Act: • Provides credits against the 2020 personal income tax for eligible individuals. These advance payments will be sent to people in April 2020. Eligibility for the advance payments will be based on the person's income tax return for 2019, or 2018 if the return for 2019 has not been filed yet. Individuals who are not required to file an income tax return but are eligible for the advance payment may register through the Internal Revenue Service's web site. Eligible individuals who receive social security benefit payments will generally receive payments without registering. Contrary to common misconception, the payments are not considered taxable income. • $2,400 to each married couple filing jointly or $1,200 to each other individual, and • $500 for each dependent who is a qualifying child under age 17 as of December 31, 2020. • Payment amounts are reduced for each married couple filing jointly whose adjusted gross income is between $150,001 and $198,000. Payments are reduced for a head of household whose adjusted gross income is between $112,501 and $146,500. Payments are reduced for each other individual whose adjusted gross income is between $75,001 and $99,000. • An individual is not eligible if he can be claimed as a dependent by another taxpayer. An individual is also not eligible if he is a nonresident alien. Unemployment benefits • Establishes: • Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation (FPUC), an additional $600 per week for those receiving unemployment benefits, in addition to the amount allotted by the specific state. The additional amount was available from the date the CARES Act was enacted (March 27, 2020) through July 26, 2020. • Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC), an additional 13 weeks for those who have otherwise exhausted unemployment benefits. • Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA), a type of unemployment insurance with broader eligibility guidelines, including any individual who is out of work due to the pandemic, including formerly self-employed, contract, and gig workers. • Provides reimbursements to self-insured nonprofit organizations, government agencies, and Indian tribes for 50 percent of unemployment benefit payments paid to states, through December 31, 2020. Student grants, student loans, and work-study programs • Creates a 14-billion-dollar Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund (ESSER) to provide cash grants to college students for costs such as course materials, technology, food, housing, and child care. Each college will determine which of its students receive cash grants. • Payments of student loan principal and interest of by an employer to either an employee or a lender is not taxable to the employee if paid between March 27, 2020, and December 31, 2020. The maximum amount that is tax-free is $5,250 per employee. • For college students in a Federal Work-Study Program, allows a school to continue to pay a student if the student is unable to fulfill their work-study obligation due to the COVID-19 public health emergency. • Gives students and colleges flexibility regarding the requirements for federal student financial aid during the COVID-19 pandemic. • Suspends payments and accrual of interest on federal student loans through September 30, 2020. Suspends garnishments and tax refund interception related to federal student loans through September 30, 2020. Retirement plans and retirement accounts • Suspends required minimum distributions from traditional individual retirement accounts (IRAs) and employer-sponsored retirement plans for 2020. • Waives the 10% tax penalty for early distributions from IRAs, 401(k) plans, 403(b) plans, and 457(b) plans if: • The individual, their spouse, or their dependent has been diagnosed with COVID-19; • Increases the maximum amount of a 401(k) loan from an employer-sponsored 401(k) retirement plan. The limit used to be the lesser of $50,000 or 50% of the participant's vested assets. It has been changed to the lesser of $100,000 or 100% of the participant's vested assets. Waives the requirement that covered medical services include an in-person meeting with a medical professional. Foreclosure and eviction moratorium • Sections 4022 and 4023 deal with mortgages, protecting those with federally-backed mortgages from foreclosure until at least August 31, 2020, and allowing the right to request a mortgage forbearance for up to 180 days. Section 4024(b) provides for a 120-day moratorium (beginning on the day the Act was signed, March 27, and lasting until July 24) on eviction filings for rental units in properties that participate in federal assistance programs, or have a federally backed mortgage or multifamily mortgage loan. One estimate is that this eviction moratorium covers 28% of all rental units in the United States; however, there are no enforcement mechanisms provided. Other provisions • Allows health savings accounts (HSAs), health flexible spending accounts, health reimbursement accounts, and medical savings accounts to pay for or reimburse for over-the-counter medicines and menstrual care products without a prescription or note from a physician, as of January 1, 2020. • When an individual affected by COVID-19 requests and receives flexibility with their payment obligations from a creditor, the creditor must report to credit bureaus that the individual is in compliance with their payment obligations. • Emergency Broadband Benefit was a United States FCC program which subsidizes broadband access during the COVID-19 pandemic. The EBB was replaced in 2021 by the Affordable Connectivity Program. Other pieces of legislation established an Emergency Rental Assistance (ERA) program. The Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 (Division N of P.L. 116-260) set aside $25 billion, while Section 3201 of the American Rescue Plan Act (P.L. 117-2) set aside an additional $21.5 billion. These were to be funded by the Coronavirus Relief Fund (CRF) established by the CARES Act. ==Relief to defense contractors==

• Department of Defense contractors may use their federal contracts to pay their employees and subcontractors up to 40 hours per week per worker while the worker can neither work on-site nor work remotely on a contract beginning January 31, 2020, through September 30, 2020. ==Relief to mail delivery==

• The U.S. Postal Service received a $10billion line of credit. On April 24, 2020, Trump attempted to use this loan as leverage for a new demand, as he threatened to block the emergency funding if the post office did not quadruple its prices for online retailers. , the details of the loan were still being negotiated. • $400 million was allocated to help states prepare for an expected increase in mailed ballots in November 2020. ==Legislative history==

Initial criticism and negotiations The House initially passed a tax cut bill in mid-2019 and sent it to the Senate, which then used it as a shell bill and added an amendment in the nature of a substitute, fulfilling the constitutional requirement that all bills for raising revenue must originate in the House. After the new bill was released by the Senate, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) issued a statement that read in part: "We are beginning to review Senator McConnell's proposal and on first reading, it is not at all pro-worker and instead puts corporations way ahead of workers." Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) criticized the fact that Democrats were not involved by Republicans in drafting the bill. Among Senate Republicans there was "significant debate and disagreement" regarding "Donald Trump's proposal to provide most Americans with $1,000-plus checks to boost spending and stimulate the economy". Immediately thereafter, "Dow futures hit their 5% 'limit down' overnight, and were off 600 points at one stage Monday morning." In response, Mitch McConnell announced the second key procedural vote on the CARES Act, a cloture vote to end debate, on Monday, March 23; 60 votes were needed, but it failed 49–46. For procedural reasons, the text was replaced by the new language passed by the Senate. Procedural votes for the bill were made more difficult by the fact that five Republican Senators were in self-quarantine: Senator Rand Paul, who had tested positive for COVID-19, as well as Senators Mike Lee, Mitt Romney, Cory Gardner, and Rick Scott. Nancy Pelosi indicated that the House would prepare its own bill, expected to exceed $2.5trillion, as a counter-offer, which was criticized by Republicans as "a progressive wishlist seemingly unrelated to the crisis". Senate agreement Early in the morning of Wednesday March 25, Senate leaders announced they had come to an agreement on a modified version of the CARES Act, the full text of which exceeds 300 pages. Mitch McConnell "announced news of a breakthrough on the Senate floor shortly after 1:30a.m. Wednesday". McConnell continued the analogy to war by saying the CARES Act would provide "ammunition" to health care workers who are the "frontline heroes who put themselves at risk to care for patients" by providing them "the ammunition they need". Chuck Schumer stated on the Senate floor, "Like all compromises, this bill is far from perfect, but we believe the legislation has been improved significantly to warrant its quick consideration and passage, and because many Democrats and Republicans were willing to do the serious and hard work, the bill is much better off than where it started." The result of the agreement between Senate leaders and the White House was a $2trillion bill that "is the largest economic relief bill in U.S. history". The bill was criticized by Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and New York Governor Andrew Cuomo. Senator Bernie Sanders then threatened to block the legislation and impose more stringent conditions for the $500billion earmarked for corporate bailouts if the unemployment provision was removed by the proposed amendment of the four Republican Senators. To address these concerns, Senate leaders "agreed to allow an amendment vote on the floor". Late in the night of March 25, 2020, the Senate passed the $2trillion bill in a unanimous 96–0 vote. Four Republicans did not vote, namely John Thune, who was "feeling ill", Rand Paul (who had tested positive for COVID-19), and Mitt Romney and Mike Lee, who were both in isolation after having had contact with Senator Paul. Representative Thomas Massie, a Republican from Kentucky, attempted to maneuver for a roll-call vote, but the quorum present did not support the idea. Massie's threat to demand a recorded vote nonetheless "compelled dozens, if not hundreds, of lawmakers to return to Capitol Hill from their home districts, navigating across interstates and through airports at a time when public health officials have urged Americans to avoid nonessential travel and gathering in large groups". Massie's actions received bipartisan criticism. Former Secretary of State John Kerry, a Democrat, tweeted "Congressman Massie has tested positive for being an asshole. He must be quarantined to prevent the spread of his massive stupidity," a message which was shared by Donald Trump on Twitter. The House passed the bill on March 27 by a near-unanimous, unrecorded voice vote. Signed into law and signing statement A few hours after the House passed the bill, it was signed into law by President Trump. In a signing statement, Trump suggested he could gag the Special Inspector General for Pandemic Recovery (SIGPR) insofar as his constitutional powers as president enabled him to block the SIGPR's reports to Congress. According to The New York Times, the statement was consistent with Trump's "history of trying to keep damaging information acquired by an inspector general from reaching Congress". ==Litigation==

Part of the CARES act set aside to federally-recognized "tribal governments". The Treasury Department earmarked about of those funds to go towards Alaska Native corporations (ANCs), which provided similar governance as typical tribal leadership in the lower 48 states. Three native Indian tribes sued on the basis that under the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act of 1975 (ISDA), ANCs were not federally-recognized tribal governments and should not be eligible for CARES funds. The case was eventually heard by the United States Supreme Court, which ruled in June 2021 that ANCs did qualify as tribal governments under the ISDA, and thus eligible to receive the set-aside funds. ==Oversight mechanisms==

Congressional Oversight Commission Pandemic Response Accountability Committee The legislation required the creation of a Pandemic Response Accountability Committee. On March 30, the inspectors general selected Glenn Fine, who had been an inspector general in four presidential administrations and who was serving as acting Pentagon inspector general, to chair the committee. One week later, Trump removed Fine from his position as acting Pentagon inspector general, making him ineligible to chair the committee. Michael E. Horowitz instead became the acting chair. By late April, there were at least four investigations into the government's response to the pandemic; on April 28, some inspectors general from the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee updated the House Oversight Committee about these investigations. Special Inspector General for Pandemic Recovery The legislation also requires oversight by a separate Special Inspector General for Pandemic Recovery (SIGPR) who will monitor loans and investments from a $500billion corporate bailout fund established by the legislation. A provision in the legislation empowers the special inspector general to audit the use of the fund; requires the Treasury Department and other executive-branch entities to provide information to the special inspector general; and directs the special inspector general to report to Congress "without delay" if an agency unreasonably withholds requested information. ==Budgetary impact==

The Congressional Budget Office provided a preliminary score for the CARES Act on April 16, 2020, estimating that it would increase federal deficits by about $1.7trillion over the 2020–2030 period. The estimate includes: • A $988 billion increase in mandatory outlays; • A $446 billion decrease in revenues; and • A $326 billion increase in discretionary outlays, stemming from emergency supplemental appropriations. CBO reported that not all parts of the bill will increase deficits. "Although the act provides financial assistance totaling more than $2trillion, the projected cost is less than that because some of that assistance is in the form of loan guarantees, which are not estimated to have a net effect on the budget. In particular, the act authorizes the Secretary of the Treasury to provide up to $454billion to fund emergency lending facilities established by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. Because the income and costs stemming from that lending are expected to roughly offset each other, CBO estimates no deficit effect from that provision." On November 19, 2020, Treasury Secretary Mnuchin sent a letter to the Federal Reserve requesting that the Federal Reserve return unused funds to the Treasury. Invalid and challenged stimulus payments After the enactment of the CARES Act, the Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) disbursed about 160.4 million payments totaling $269 billion by the end of April 2020, of which nearly 1.1 million payments, totaling almost $1.4 billion (0.5% of the total value of all payments), were sent to dead people. A Government Accountability Office report in June 2020 noted that, in the hurry to distribute payments, the agencies had not followed post-2013 financial control safeguards to prevent payments to the dead or other ineligible persons. Some citizens of other countries were accidentally given checks on the basis of having previously worked or lived in the U.S. ==Commentary==

Bipartisan passage Congress passed the CARES Act relatively quickly and with unanimity from both parties despite its $2.2trillion price tag, indicating the severity of the global pandemic and the need for emergency spending, as viewed by lawmakers. Writing in The New Republic, journalist Alex Shephard nevertheless questioned how the Republican Party "...had come to embrace big spending" when, during the Great Recession, no Republicans in the House and only three in the Senate supported President Barack Obama's $800billion stimulus, known as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA), often citing the deficit and national debt. Shephard opined that, unlike CARES, much of the media attention to ARRA focused on its impact on the deficit, and he questioned whether Republicans would again support a major spending request under a hypothetical future Democratic president. Donald Trump remarked upon passage of CARES in the Senate that "The Democrats have treated us fairly... I really believe we've had a very good back-and-forth. And I say that with respect to [Senate Minority Leader] Chuck Schumer". Economic impact In mid-April, a survey released by the James Beard Foundation and the Independent Restaurant Coalition indicated that 80 percent of restaurant owners (representing roughly half a million businesses which employ eleven million people) did not believe that their businesses were likely to survive, despite the CARES Act and the PPP. Advisors nominated by the White House to their Great American Economic Revival Industry Group for the food industry included 23 celebrities and executives of large chains, but no small business owners. In a release dated April 16, 2020, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that the CARES Act "will increase federal deficits by about $1.7 trillion over the 2020–2030 period." Part of the reason this is less than the $2.2trillion included in the CARES Act is that income and costs as part of the Treasury's emergency lending program are expected to offset each other. Following the passage of the CARES act, real disposable personal income jumped to over 17,200 billion of chained 2012 dollars from a previous 15,200 billion of chained 2012 dollars in January. Political impacts The passage of the CARES act occurred during the 2020 election cycle. Steven Mnuchin, the Treasury Secretary, insisted to the IRS that the checks to individuals include Trump's name, the first time a president's name appeared on an IRS expenditure. IRS officials believed the White House was politicizing the agency to boost Trump's reelection bid. The officials also worried that it would be in violation of the 1939 Hatch Act, among other federal laws, seeking a legal opinion from the Treasury Department and guidance from the Justice Department. The request was approved by agency attorneys. The request to add Trump's name and a letter from the White House stood to delay the mailing (due to reprinting), but the checks were sent on time. ==See also==