Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021


The Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 is a $2.3trillion spending bill that combines $900 billion in stimulus relief for the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States with a $1.4trillion omnibus spending bill for the 2021 federal fiscal year and prevents a government shutdown. The bill is one of the largest spending measures ever enacted, surpassing the $2.2trillion CARES Act, enacted in March 2020. The legislation is the first bill to address the pandemic since April 2020. According to the Senate Historical Office, at 5,593 pages, the legislation is the longest bill ever passed by Congress.
The bill was passed by both houses of Congress on December 21, 2020, with large bipartisan majorities in support. The bill was the product of weeks of intense negotiations and compromise between Democrats and Republicans during the lame-duck session. After initially criticizing the bill, President Donald Trump signed it into law on December 27.

Legislative history

Background

Following the approval of some $2.5trillion in stimulus in March and April, Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell cautioned against any further spending. From then until mid-October, Republicans and Democrats proposed a series of prospective bills, with support mostly along party lines, and each side voicing criticism of the other party's inclusion of special interests. In September, a non-pandemic-related spending bill was passed to avoid a government shutdown, allowing Congress to focus on a separate relief bill. On November 4, McConnell spoke in favor of passing stimulus during the lame-duck session in November and December. Two days later, Larry Kudlow, the director of President Donald Trump's National Economic Council, indicated that, like McConnell, the Trump administration was interested in a targeted package smaller than $2–3trillion.

Negotiations

On December 1, McConnell implied that some form of relief would come in the spending bill for the fiscal year of 2021. The next day, House speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer endorsed a $908billion bipartisan plan. A number of Republican senators subsequently endorsed it, with Lindsey Graham saying he had discussed it "extensively" with Trump.
On December 8, Mnuchin presented a $916billion counter-proposal, which Pelosi and Schumer called "unacceptable" because it reduced funding for unemployment insurance from $180billion to $40billion, in exchange for a one-time $600 direct payment for adults and children.
On December 11, a one-week stopgap spending bill was signed into law to allow more time to negotiate stimulus.
The next week, two controversial measures from both parties were moved into a separate $160billion bill called the Bipartisan State and Local Support and Small Business Protection Act of 2020. This bill included the Democrat's request for more state and local government aid, and the Republican's request for a strong COVID lawsuit liability shield for businesses.
Senators Josh Hawley and Bernie Sanders planned to bring to vote on December 18 a proposal for direct payments of the same amount provided by the CARES Act, but this was blocked by Senator Ron Johnson.
On December 18, a 48-hour stopgap bill was passed to keep the government funded through the weekend, with a one-day stopgap bill passed to prolong voting until that Monday, December 21.
At the request of Senator Pat Toomey, the bill was modified to require congressional approval of future emergency lending through the Fed, and to rescind about $429billion in unused CARES Act funding.
In order to pass the bill more quickly, Congress used H.R. 133, previously the United States-Mexico Economic Partnership Act, as a legislative vehicle, amending the bill to contain its current text.

Challenges

During the last few days, logistical challenges arose as the bill, which consisted of some 5,500 pages of text, proved difficult to physically assemble due to printer malfunctions and a corrupted computer file. The file, representing the education portion of the bill, posed a problem in that all portions had to be combined into one overall file. Senator John Thune remarked, "Unfortunately, it's a bad time to have a computer glitch." The delays meant that the two votes in Congress were delayed late into the evening of December 21.
Several members of both parties voiced unhappiness with such a large bill being presented to them with little time to understand what was inside it. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez wrote, "It's not good enough to hear about what's in the bill. Members of Congress need to see & read the bills we are expected to vote on," and compared the process to "hostage-taking", while Representative Michael Burgess said, "This is a tough way to legislate, to save everything til the very end and then pass a very large bill." Senator Ted Cruz tweeted that the whole process was "ABSURD".

Congress passes the bill

On the evening of December 21 the votes were held, with large, bipartisan majorities supporting them. The bill was split into two parts in the House, with one portion passing 327–85 and another portion 359–53. The first vote, which included funding for federal agencies, was opposed by 41 Democrats and 43 Republicans. The stimulus portion was in the latter vote, and was supported by Democrats by a 230–2 margin and Republicans by a 128–50 margin. Following that, there was a single vote in the Senate, which passed 92–6.
Also on the night of December 21, Trump signed a weeklong stopgap bill through December 28, avoiding a shutdown while the 5,593-page legislation was being processed. It was the biggest bill ever passed by Congress in terms of length of text. On December 24, Congress began the official process of sending the bill to Trump.

Presidential dispute and signing

Trump was largely absent from the final series of negotiations on the pandemic relief and omnibus legislation, as he had been focusing almost exclusively on promoting his claims that the 2020 presidential election had been stolen from him. Trump's Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and other Trump administration officials were involved in the negotiations at each stage and expressed support for the final deal.
In a video released on the evening of December 22, a day after the bill's passage, Trump indicated his dissatisfaction with the bill, calling it a "disgrace" and criticizing it for including what he called "wasteful and unnecessary" spending and not enough pandemic relief, calling the $600 individual payments "ridiculously low". Trump's last-minute statement shocked Congress and surprised administration officials, including Mnuchin, who was heavily involved in the negotiations. In the video, Trump complained about various spending line items in the bill for not being related to COVID-19, but these expenditures were part of the regular annual appropriations, not the COVID-19 stimulus portion of the bill. Moreover, the budget items that Trump complained about were part of Trump's own budget proposal for the year, and were similar to budget provisions in previous budgets signed by Trump.
Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell said that, if Trump vetoed the bill, the Senate was prepared to convene on December 29 for an override vote.
On the night of December 22, Trump asked Congress to send him a version of the bill with $2,000 rather than $600 individual payments. House speaker Pelosi and House majority leader Steny Hoyer signaled Democratic support of this change, while Senate minority leader Schumer encouraged Trump to sign the current bill, stating that "we're glad to pass more aid" at a later date. If no agreement can be reached, the government may shut down, and according to Trump, "the next administration will have to deliver a COVID relief package and maybe that administration will be me". It was speculated that Trump might use a pocket veto.
The president left for his Mar-a-Lago estate on December 23, leaving his intentions unclear. On December 24, House Democrats tried to pass, by unanimous consent, legislation to increase the size of the stimulus checks to $2,000, but House Republicans blocked the proposed increase. Many figures in both parties urged Trump to sign the bill, and planned fallback strategies to keep the government open in case he did not.
Two kinds of pandemic relief payments, Pandemic Unemployment Assistance and Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation, expired on the morning of December 27. On the evening of December 27, after coming under heavy pressure from Democrats and Republicans, Trump signed the bill into law without his demands being met. Upon signing the bill, Trump released a statement containing various false statements and grievances. Trump indicated that he would create "a redlined version" of the bill accompanied by a "formal rescission request to Congress insisting that those funds be removed from the bill." Congress is not expected to act on this request. Trump's delay of nearly a week in signing the bill held up $900billion in emergency relief funds, and because he did not sign the bill a day earlier, millions of Americans enrolled in unemployment programs were unlikely to receive a payment for the final week of 2020.

CASH Act

On December 28, the House passed the Caring for Americans with Supplemental Help Act, a standalone bill to increase direct payments to $2,000 for those who make under $75,000 annually. It would phase out for those who make up to $115,000. Projected to cost $464billion, the House passed the bill by just over the two-thirds majority vote necessary, under a suspension of the rules.
On December 29, Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer moved to pass the bill by unanimous consent, but was blocked by Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell. Later that day, McConnell introduced legislation combining increased payments with two other Trump demands: a repeal of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, and the establishment of a voter fraud study commission. McConnell later claimed that Trump had requested these items to be tied to the stimulus checks, but there is no record of this. Senator Chris Murphy has cautioned against sinking the $2,000 stimulus checks with "poison pills". On December 31, Schumer again tried to pass the bill by unanimous consent, which was again blocked by McConnell. Schumer suggested voting on the president's other two requests separately.
On December 30, McConnell criticized the CASH Act for failing to adequately phase out higher-income earners. Bernie Sanders tried to force a roll-call vote on the law by filibustering a vote to override Trump's veto of the 2021 defense bill. On January 1, 2021, Schumer again called for a vote on $2,000 stimulus checks but was blocked by a Republican senator—ending prospects for the act to be approved by the 116th Congress. On January 6, after Democrats won control of the Senate by winning two Senate seats in Georgia the night before, Schumer said the $2,000 payments were a top priority for him in the 117th Congress. President-elect Joe Biden also supported increasing the payments to $2,000.

Provisions

Coronavirus relief

The Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2021 is Division M of the legislation, and Division N contains additional coronavirus provisions. It is a follow-on to such actions as the CARES Act and Paycheck Protection Program passed in March 2020, and comes after eight months of mostly little progress in negotiations between the different parties and houses of Congress. Many of the negotiations made little progress due to strongly held policy differences being contested. The incumbent president, having lost his bid for re-election, generally played little role in the later stages of the discussions.
The pandemic relief portion of the bill was estimated at about $900billion by the Associated Press. On January 14, the Congressional Budget Office released its scoring with Division M as $184billion and Division N as $682billion, for a total of $866billion with their breakdowns. The Associated Press' estimates were:
  • $325billion for small businesses
  • * $284billion in forgivable loans via the Paycheck Protection Program
  • * $20billion for businesses in low-income communities
  • * $15billion for economically endangered live venues, movie theaters and museums
  • * Expanded employee retention tax credit: gross receipts threshold reduced to 20%; small employer cap raised to 500; PPP borrowers eligible; worth up to $7,000 per employee per quarter.
  • $166billion for a $600 stimulus check, for most Americans with an adjusted gross income lower than $75,000
  • $120billion for an extension of increased federal unemployment benefits
  • $82billion for schools and universities, including $54billion to public K-12 schools, $23billion for higher education; $4billion to a Governors Emergency Education Relief Fund; and slightly under $1billion for Native American schools
  • $69billion for vaccines, testing, and health providers
  • * Vaccine and treatment procurement and distribution, as well as a strategic stockpile, received over $30billion
  • * Testing, contact tracing, and mitigation received $22billion
  • * Health care providers received $9billion
  • * Mental health received $4.5billion
  • $25billion for a federal aid to state and local governments for rental assistance programs
  • $13billion to increase the monthly Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefit by 15% through June 30, 2021
  • $13billion round of direct payments to the farming and ranching industry, including
  • * About $5billion for payments of $20 per acre for row crop producers, which would go to producers of corn, soybeans, wheat, and cotton.
  • * Up to $1billion for livestock and poultry farmers, plus certain "plus-up" payments for cattle producers
  • * $470million for dairy producers, plus additional $400million for the USDA to purchase milk for processing into dairy products for donation to food banks
  • * $60million for small meat and poultry processors
  • $10billion for child care
  • $10billion for the U.S. Postal Service
The legislation also extends the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention-imposed eviction moratorium to January 31, 2021; the moratorium had initially been set to expire at the end of 2020.

Regular appropriations

The regular annual appropriations bills comprise Divisions A through L of the bill, and totals about $1.4trillion. Among these provisions are:

Division A – Agriculture, rural development, FDA

  • $114billion for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and $25.118billion for Child Nutrition Programs, including $42 million for the Summer Electronic Benefits Transfer program, and $30 million for school meal equipment grants, and $6billion in discretionary Women, Infants and Children funding
  • $23.4billion for agriculture, rural development, the FDA, and related agencies (an increase of $217million from FY2020
  • $7billion to expand broadband access for students, families and unemployed workers, including $300million for rural broadband and $250million for telehealth

Division B – Commerce, justice, science

Division C – Defense

Division D – Energy and water development

Division E – Financial services, general government

Division F – Homeland security

Division G – Interior, environment

Division H – Labor, health, education

Division I – Legislative branch

Division J – Military construction and veterans affairs

  • $243billion in mandatory and discretionary funding for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. VA funding increased by almost 12% from the previous fiscal year. VA appropriations include $10.3 billion for veterans' mental health, $3.2billion to address the Veterans Benefits Administration backlog of disability claims, $16billion for MISSION Act community care, $2.6billion for VA electronic health record modernization, $1.9 billion for programs addressing veteran homelessness, and $1.2billion for the Caregivers Program. The act also provides $130 billion in advance appropriations for fiscal year 2022 to ensure continuity of VA funding and prevent a future partial government shutdown from affecting the VA.
  • Appropriations for military construction declined 28% from the prior fiscal year.

Division K – State and foreign operations

The act appropriated $55.5 billion for the U.S. Department of State, foreign operations, related programs, and the Overseas Contingency Operations funds. This was an increase from the amount appropriated in the previous fiscal year, but lower than the bills approved by the House and Senate. The act also included funding for the U.S. contribution to the replenishment of the Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria, a goal of global health advocates. The foreign aid appropriations are an increase of about 1%.

Division L – Transportation, housing and urban development

Other provisions

Divisions O through Z and AA through FF contains additional legislation unrelated to coronavirus relief and annual appropriations. Additionally, the appropriations provisions of the bill contain various policy riders. The addition of such provisions to omnibus spending legislation is common toward the end of a congressional session. Among these are:

Healthcare

  • A ban on most surprise medical billing—unexpected, and sometimes large, bills from out-of-network providers that are charged to patients. The ban, which goes into effect in 2022, will require out-of-network providers to negotiate with insurers to obtain compensation, rather than billing insured patients directly. The ban on surprising billing will apply to physicians, hospitals, and air ambulances, but does not apply to ground ambulances. The ban on surprise billing had broad public support; a similar provision nearly passed in 2019, but was blocked amid concerns from health providers and the private-equity firms that own many of them.
  • Reauthorizing funding for community health centers for three years
  • Extension of Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement rates for health care providers and procedures
  • Requiring ERISA health plan sponsors to attest that fees are fair and reasonable for the services provided

Tax provisions

  • Various "tax extenders" extending expiring tax breaks; including making permanent a previous reduction in the excise tax for producers of beer, wine, and distilled spirits ; extension of the wind production tax credit ; a tax extender for the motorsports entertainment industry ; and a tax extender for buyers of "two-wheeled plug-in electric vehicles"
  • A tax deduction for corporate meal expenses; inclusion of this provision was pushed by Trump and administration officials, but was criticized by many House Democrats who referred to it as a needless "three-martini lunch" tax break, as well as by economists across the political spectrum. During negotiations, Democrats ultimately agreed to include the deduction in exchange for Republicans' agreement to the expansion of tax credits for the working poor and low-income families.

Education

Foreign and human rights policy

Energy and environmental provisions

Economic analyses

Economists projected that the relief act would have a stimulative effect and would strengthen U.S. economic recovery in the second half of 2021, but came too late to avert a struggling economy in the first half of 2021. An analysis by economists Adam Hersh and Mark Paul, commissioned by the Groundwork Collaborative, a progressive think tank, concluded that Congress would need to enact a near-term stimulus about four times larger in order to obtain a full recovery.
The bill's omission of grants to state and local governments, which are struggling with budget shortfalls, was criticized by economists, who noted that the lack of revenue would lead to state and local governments eliminating jobs and raising taxes.
Economists stated that the $25billion in rental assistance programs allocated by the bill were insufficient to prevent a looming eviction crisis.