What's in the $2 Trillion Coronavirus Relief Package?
Updated on 4/21/2020 and 4/29/2020 to reflect the Congressional Budget Office's (CBO) estimate and subsequent revisions.
Lawmakers recently approved the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act – the third and most expansive package designed to address the public health and economic crisis brought on by the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
This blog post is a product of the COVID Money Tracker, a new initiative of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget focused on identifying and tracking the disbursement of the trillions being poured into the economy to combat the crisis through legislative, administrative, and Federal Reserve actions.
The legislation expands and extends unemployment benefits, sends most Americans a $1,200 per person check, incentivizes and compensates businesses to keep workers employed, facilitates new loans and grants to large and small businesses, increases aid to states, spends more on hospitals, offers targeted tax relief, and enacts other tax and spending changes.
The CARES Act appropriates roughly $2.2 trillion of spending, tax breaks, loans, and other resources over the next decade. CBO estimates it would add $1.7 trillion to the deficit over that period. The difference is driven largely by the $454 billion from the bill dedicated to supporting roughly $4.5 trillion of Federal Reserve loans – CBO does not believe these funds will result in any net cost.
| Provision | Budget Authority | Deficit Impact |
|---|---|---|
| Expand & Extend Unemployment Benefits | $268 billion | $268 billion |
| Boost all unemployment benefits by $600 per week, cover additional workers who would not normally be eligible, provide an additional 13 weeks of benefits, & other changes | $268 billion | $268 billion |
| Issue One-Time Checks | $293 billion | $293 billion |
| Provide tax rebates of $1,200/adult & $500/child, phased out above $75,000 of income ($150,000/couple) | $293 billion | $293 billion |
| Provide Small Business Loans & Grants | $377 billion | $377 billion |
| Support, issue, & guarantee loans to small businesses; offer loan forgiveness for funds spent on payroll, rent, mortgage interest, & utilities | $366 billion | $366 billion |
| Provide emergency grants for small businesses | $10 billion | $10 billion |
| Issue grants related to small businesses & entrepreneurial development | $1 billion | $1 billion |
| Support Loans & Loan Guarantees for Large Businesses & Governments | $510 billion | $11 billion |
| Provide loans to passenger airlines | $25 billion | $0.6 billion |
| Provide loans to cargo airlines | $4 billion | $0.1 billion |
| Provide loans to firms vital to maintaining national security | $17 billion | $0.4 billion |
| Provide loans to the U.S. Postal Service for operating expenses | $10 billion | $10 billion |
| Support $4.5 trillion of loans to businesses, states, & municipalities via new Federal Reserve facility | $454 billion | $0 |
| Support State & Local Governments | $150 billion | $150 billion |
| Provide aid to states (at least $1.25 billion per state) | $150 billion | $150 billion |
| Increase Health-Related Spending | $153 billion | $159 billion |
| Increase hospital & public health funding | $100 billion | $100 billion |
| Increase preparedness funding | $27 billion | $27 billion |
| Increase funding for community health centers | $6 billion | $6 billion |
| Increase Medicare payments, expand telehealth & home services, & repeal Medicare sequester | $28 billion | $25 billion |
| Extend Medicare sequester | -$36 billion | -$26 billion |
| Increase funding for the CDC, FDA, NIH, IHS, & other health-related agencies | $8 billion | $8 billion |
| Increase funding toward veterans & defense health | $20 billion | $19 billion |
| Support the Safety Net | $42 billion | $42 billion |
| Increase SNAP (food stamps) & child nutrition funding | $25 billion | $25 billion |
| Increase child & family services funding | $5 billion | $5 billion |
| Boost housing support | $12 billion | $12 billion |
| Increase Disaster Assistance | $45 billion | $44 billion |
| Expand FEMA disaster assistance fund | $45 billion | $44 billion |
| Increase Education Spending | $40 billion | $40 billion |
| Establish Education Stabilization Fund for states, school districts, & higher education institutions | $31 billion | $31 billion |
| Enact supplemental appropriations for Department of Education programs | <$1 billion | <$1 billion |
| Preserving student aid for those affected by COVID-19 | $1 billion | $1 billion |
| Defer payments & interest on federally-held student loans for 6 months | $8 billion | $8 billion |
| Support Transportation Providers & Industries | $71 billion | $63 billion |
| Provide grants to air carriers & airline contractors to avoid furloughs & pay cuts | $32 billion | $24 billion |
| Issue infrastructure grants to transit providers, including state & local governments | $25 billion | $25 billion |
| Provide grants to publicly-owned commercial airports | $10 billion | $10 billion |
| Temporarily suspend airline ticket, cargo, & fuel taxes | $4 billion | $4 billion |
| Reduce Individual Taxes | $20 billion | $20 billion |
| Permanently allow HSA purchases of menstrual products & over-the-counter (OTC) medications | $9 billion | $9 billion |
| Loosen caps on deductibility of charitable giving as a share of income | $1 billion | $1 billion |
| Provide temporary deduction for up to $300 of charitable donations by nonitemizers | $2 billion | $2 billion |
| Allow up to $100,000 to be withdrawn from retirement accounts for reasons related to COVID-19 | $3 billion | $3 billion |
| Temporarily waive retirement minimum distribution rules | $5 billion | $5 billion |
| Temporarily exclude employer-provided student loan assistance from income | $0.5 billion | $0.5 billion |
| Cut Business Taxes | $241 billion | $241 billion |
| Loosen caps imposed under the Tax Cuts & Jobs Act on interest deductibility & operating losses | $174 billion | $174 billion |
| Offer payroll tax credits for businesses who retain workers at a loss | $55 billion | $55 billion |
| Delay employer payroll tax payments from 2020 to 2021 & 2022 | $12 billion | $12 billion |
| Allow retailers & restaurants to write off the cost of improvements | * | * |
| Other Spending | $15 billion | $14 billion |
| TOTAL | $2.2 trillion | $1.7 trillion |
Budget Authority and Deficit Impact are over the 2020-2030 budget window. Numbers may not sum due to rounding. *Scores with no effect because it was already estimated as part of the 2017 tax cuts, even though the change will reduce revenue.
Source: Congressional Budget Office, JCT, bill text, CRFB calculations.
