The $1.9 trillion Biden stimulus law was enacted last week.
Some elements could strengthen the nation s social safety net in the wake of the pandemic.
Provisions include larger tax credits and enhanced unemployment insurance.
President Joe Biden signed a $1.9 trillion stimulus law last week, among the largest government rescue measures in American history.
Many of its provisions are directed at keeping individuals and families afloat as vaccinations become more widely available. Still, some aspects of the law may end up dramatically remaking the social safety net. This package sets a new and powerful precedent, especially for helping children and their families when they have limited or no income, Indivar Dutta-Gupta, co-executive director of the Georgetown Center on Poverty and Inequality, said in a recent interview with Insider.
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But those provisions will expire later this year if Congress takes no further action.
Experts say the child poverty rate could double next year.
President Joe Biden secured his first major legislative victory on the 51st day of his new administration. He signed a $1.9 trillion economic aid bill into law Thursday, paving the way for a large infusion of federal cash onto middle-class and lower-income Americans.
The package includes various measures to help struggling households a year into the pandemic: A wave of $1,400 stimulus payments, beefed-up tax credits for children and adults, larger food-stamp assistance, and enhanced unemployment insurance. Democrats cast it as among the most historic pieces of legislation that Congress has taken up in many years.
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By Andrew Duehren and Kristina Peterson WASHINGTON The House passed a $1.9 trillion coronavirus-relief bill and sent it to President Biden for his signature, with Democrats muscling an expansive round of new spending and antipoverty measures through Congress just as America begins to emerge from a year of pandemic-related shutdowns. The relief bill offers a $1,400 check to many Americans, an extension of a $300 weekly jobless-aid supplement, and a one-year expansion of the child tax credit that will provide periodic payments for many households. It also showers money on schools, vaccine distribution efforts and state and local governments, provides support to struggling multiemployer pensions, and makes the biggest changes to the Affordable Care Act since its passage in 2010, among other measures.