December 22, 2020

Finally, Good News on COVID-19 Relief (..and a Telephone Town Hall Tonight!)

Hello Folks-

When this pandemic first started, I made a commitment that when anyone from our region contacted my office about losing a job, or a small business, or a loved one due to COVID-19, I would reach out personally to hear their story and see if I could lend a hand. Over the past nine months, I’ve spoken with folks from every corner of our region – and I’ve heard a lot of despair, and a lot of fear, from folks who have been worrying about whether they can keep the lights on, feed their families, and keep a roof over their head. People need help. That’s why I’ve had a sense of urgency to push the federal government to provide more relief and to have the backs of folks in our neck of the woods.

As I’ve mentioned in previous newsletters, the House passed multiple COVID-19 relief bills over the last six months to provide more support for folks. Unfortunately, during that time, Mitch McConnell said, “Let’s just pause” and the Senate didn’t pass any relief. 

Thankfully, this week, the House and the Senate finally came up with a compromise COVID-19 relief bill that has now passed both chambers and is headed to the President’s desk to be signed into law.

Now, like most things that come out of Washington, this bill is far from perfect. There are provisions I wouldn’t have included. And there are things I wanted included that weren’t. But importantly, this bill is progress. It will help make a down payment on giving our communities resources they need to help beat back this virus and distribute vaccines, and it will provide vital support to families and local employers. Having said that, we know more is needed to help people who are hurting – and I’ll keep pushing for the federal government to take action.

Let’s get into the details…

Providing Relief to the American People

Vital Funding to Help Americans Make Ends Meet

First, this legislation included vital funding to help the American people make ends meet and help those who have lost their jobs or are experiencing reduced incomes. This includes a new round of direct cash payments to folks, worth up to $600 per adult and child. It’s less than needed – and less than I fought for – but I’m hopeful it will provide some help to folks in need while we continue to fight for additional direct payments in a future relief package. 

The direct payments are also just part of the picture. The legislation also included a provision to extend Unemployment Insurance (UI) benefits for millions of Americans and added a $300 per week UI enhancement. The bill also included $25 billion in rental assistance for families struggling to stay in their homes and, importantly, included an extension of the eviction moratorium. In addition, to help relieve the historic hunger crisis that has left up to 17 million children food insecure, the legislation made a $13 billion investment in increased Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and child nutrition benefits (including a 15% increase in SNAP benefits).

The legislation also included provisions to help working families by making improvements to the Earned Income Tax Credit and the Child Tax Credit to help ensure that families who face unemployment or reduced wages during the pandemic get some help.

Critical Support for Washington’s Small Businesses

Small businesses are the backbone of our economy. Unfortunately, many have struggled to weather this storm. With that in mind, the legislation included critical support for Washington’s small businesses, including minority-owned businesses and nonprofits. The bill includes over $284 billion for first and second forgivable Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans, expanded PPP eligibility for nonprofits and other small businesses, key modifications to PPP to help serve the smallest businesses and struggling non-profits and to better assist independent restaurants.  The bill also includes some direct help for organizations like live performance venues, independent movie theaters, and cultural institutions that may face limitations on their ability to do business until we get this virus beaten back.

The agreement also includes $20 billion for targeted Economic Injury Disaster Loan grants (with grants of up to $10,000) which are critical to many smaller businesses on Main Street. Given concerns about the ability of some small businesses to benefit from the first round of the PPP, the bill includes dedicated PPP set-asides for very small businesses and support for small businesses in low-income and underserved communities that may be disproportionately impacted by the economic effects of the COVID–19 pandemic.

To support workers, the agreement also extends and improves the Employee Retention Tax Credit to help keep workers in their jobs during coronavirus closures, or reduced revenue, and also provides a tax credit to support employers offering paid sick leave, based on the framework of earlier COVID relief legislation.

Support for Beating Back This Virus

Now that there’s a vaccine, it’s critical that people have access to it. Toward that end, the bill provides billions in funds to accelerate the free and equitable distribution of vaccines to as many Americans as soon as possible. Funding is also included to implement a national testing and tracing strategy, and to support health care workers and providers on the frontlines.

Additional Measures to Invest in the American People

Additionally, the bill included critical funding for education, child care and students - including a $82 billion investment in colleges and schools, including support for HVAC repair and replacement to mitigate virus transmission and reopen classrooms, and $10 billion for child care assistance to help get parents back to work and keep child care providers open. The package includes the largest expansion of Pell Grant recipients in over a decade, reaching 500,000 new recipients and ensuring more than 1.5 million students will now receive the maximum benefit.

The omnibus also included a $7 billion investment to increase access to broadband, including a new Emergency Broadband Benefit to help millions of students, families, and unemployed workers afford the broadband they need during the pandemic.

Most economists acknowledge that more action will be needed in the new year. Overall – this bill is a start – a down-payment. People shouldn't have to risk losing their homes, going hungry, or having their utilities shut off, due to something that's not their fault. I’ll keep working to make sure that the federal government steps up to have the backs of folks in our neck of the woods.

Investing in Our Communities

In addition to COVID-19 relief, the spending package passed by Congress this week included all 12 of the Fiscal Year 2021 appropriations bills to keep the government open and fund critical priorities that will create jobs in our region.

As a Member of the Appropriations Committee, I am pleased that it included vital investments in Puget Sound recovery and restoring our salmon, a much-deserved pay raise for our military and for civilian federal workers, support for Indian Country and veterans, investments in jobs at Naval Base Kitsap, and funding for broadband and rural economic development.

Here’s a glimpse of the highlights:

Restoring Puget Sound

Puget Sound is an iconic body of water that is critical to the environmental and economic future of our region. Generations of our friends and neighbors have built their lives and made livelihoods on the Sound. But if future generations are going to have those opportunities, we’ve got to protect and restore the Sound. 

That’s why I’m excited to report that this bill included an increase in the Puget Sound Geographic Program. This program provides critical grant support to state, local, and tribal governments to implement projects to improve water quality, protect shorelines, and enhance fish passage and salmon habitat.

Unfortunately, for the third year in a row, the Trump Administration proposed eliminating this critical program entirely. This is a body of water of national significance and recovering it shouldn’t fall solely on the backs of Washington State taxpayers. With that in mind, I was pleased that, as a Member of the Appropriations Committee, I helped not only reject the Administration’s cuts – but actually help increase this investment. That makes this the second year in a row that we were able to secure increases.

This program is a big deal for our region. My colleague, Rep. Denny Heck, and I created the Puget Sound Recovery Caucus because investments in recovering the Sound are important to local jobs and to ensuring this natural treasure can be enjoyed by future generations. And, as we work to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, these restoration projects can also put people to work.

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Supporting our Shipyard Workers and Defense Communities

In our region, we know how important it is to have the backs of the brave women and men who serve our country – and the backs of the civilian workforce and communities who support our local military installations.

That’s why, as a member of the Appropriations Committee, I’m worked to include a three percent pay increase for members of the armed forces.

This bill also supports jobs – and includes critical investments to improve the quality of life of our service members, their families, and the civilian workforce that are the lifeblood of our defense communities. These are issues I’ve been working on with the City of Bremerton and Kitsap County for some time now – so I’m excited to see these provisions move forward.

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That includes a $60 million investment I fought for to fund projects that address commuter workforce issues and other local infrastructure that support military installations like Naval Base Kitsap and Joint Base Lewis-McChord (those who have sat in traffic outside our bases know what I’m talking about here). I also secured critical investments to support infrastructure upgrades at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, to improve resiliency to fires, earthquakes, and other natural hazards – to ensure we take steps to continue to keep our communities safe.

Expanding Broadband

Every day, our world becomes more dependent on digital technologies. What’s more, we know that connecting rural communities to high-speed internet helps create more economic opportunities for more people in more places.

Over the last several months during this public health crisis, we’ve seen just how reliant our economy and our livelihoods have become on broadband - as education moved online, critical health appointments moved to video calls, and small businesses sought to sell products without contact.

Unfortunately, according to the Federal Communications Commission, broadband internet is unavailable to roughly 25 million Americans—more than 19 million of which live in rural communities. It is clear that too many communities and too many Americans are being left behind.

That’s why I’m proud that this week’s bill included a huge investment in broadband. The bill also included an important investment in a program from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) called the “ReConnect” program – which provides loans, grants, and loan-grant combinations to ensure the federal government steps-up to partner with the private sector and rural communities to help them build modern broadband infrastructure in areas with insufficient internet service.

Importantly – this bill also included an initiative I led to call on the USDA to take action to increase access to broadband on rural Tribal lands and to work with tribal communities to address the unique infrastructure challenges they face. We need to ensure that tribal communities are not held at a competitive disadvantage when competing for broadband resources.

Additionally, this bill also included an effort I led to urge the USDA to support strategies that utilize telehealth technologies to help improve health care options for seniors, expectant mothers, infants, and others across rural areas.

Growing Jobs in Rural Communities

As someone who grew up in Port Angeles, I know how important healthy, sustainably managed forests are to the economic well-being of our timber communities.

In 2015, I helped launch the Olympic Forest Collaborative – an effort to bring leaders from the timber industry, environmental community, and local government to work together to create economic opportunity on the Olympic Peninsula. Together, members of the Collaborative work to advance forest treatments that increase harvest levels while also achieving much needed environmental benefits like landscape restoration, watershed protection, and habitat conservation.

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In this spending bill, I was proud to help secure a measure to support our Collaborative and collaboratives just like it across the country – highlighting their value and directing the U.S. Forest Service to prioritize resources to expedite project development and approval of forest treatments developed by collaboratives. They need support in order to produce additional timber while also accomplishing important restoration goals. This provision will help us create more economic opportunity in the region, and I was happy to get this done.

I also worked to secure measures in the legislation that will help support new wood technologies and wood that is sustainably harvested - which will deliver economic and environmental benefits to rural communities and grow jobs on the Olympic Peninsula.

Working for You

Town Hall Tonight

Don’t forget! Tonight at 6:00pm PT I’ll be hosting a telephone town hall to get into the details of what I wrote about above – and to answer your questions. I’ll also be joined by Dr. Larry Corey, an internationally renowned vaccine expert from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, who can help answer your questions as well! We look forward to having you join us.

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Revitalizing Our Economy

As we work to get our economy back off the mat, we're going to need careful coordination and effort from key partners across our district. That's why I am so grateful for the leadership of the North Olympic Peninsula Resource Conservation & Development Council and their work on economic development in key sectors such as farm & food, forestry, and the marine trades. We had a great chat about the work Congress needs to do to invest in the Olympic Peninsula.

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Increasing Access to Behavioral Health Services

This has been an enormously challenging year for so many folks in our region. With that in mind, I'm grateful for organizations helping to improve access to behavioral health services - like Consejo Counseling & Referral Services, which provides behavioral health services to folks in Pierce & Mason Counties. Thanks for all that you do!

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OK – that’s it for now folks – I hope to speak with you on the telephone town hall tonight! As always, I’m honored to represent you.

Sincerely,