Note: This is the third of several Vote Alerts that NTU has issued on amendments to the American Rescue Plan Act. The first Vote Alert can be found here. The second Vote Alert can be found here.
NTU urges all Senators to vote “YES” on the following amendments to S. Amdt. 891, the fiscal year (FY) 2021 reconciliation legislation, should the amendments receive consideration on the Senate floor.
Tax/Finance
- Amendment #1013 from Sen. Toomey (R-PA): Ensures that $1,400 checks are limited to individuals who lost income in tax year 2020 when compared to tax year 2019. This would keep the direct payments more focused on individuals who have struggled through the COVID-19 pandemic and recovery.
Health Care
- Amendment #975 from Sen. Braun (R-IN): Ensures that individuals receiving COBRA subsidies can enroll in flexible spending arrangements (FSAs), certain kinds of health reimbursement arrangements (HRAs), and excepted benefits plans. Under the current bill, they are prohibited from doing so.
- Amendment #1004 from Sen. Toomey (R-PA): Caps eligibility for Affordable Care Act (ACA) premium tax credits (PTCs) to households making 750 percent of less of the federal poverty level. In 2021, this is $96,600 for individuals and $198,750 for a family of four—sensible limits for generous PTCs that already cost taxpayers tens of billions of dollars per year.
- Amendment #1005 from Sen. Toomey (R-PA) and Amendment #1325 from Sen. Lee (R-UT): Limits expansion of premium assistance for consumers to 2021. If policymakers want to provide additional support to individuals in the ACA marketplaces, they should at the very least keep the boost temporary and targeted.
- Amendment #1203 from Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC): Responsibly narrows some of the terms of a new $570-million Emergency Federal Employee Leave Fund and redirect some of the savings to COVID-19 expenses for nursing facilities and assisting schools with reopening.
- Amendment #1328 from Sen. Lee (R-UT): Strikes the increase to the ACA’s PTCs. These modifications are billed as temporary for reconciliation purposes, but there will surely be an attempt to make them permanent—an expensive and dubious proposition for taxpayers.
- Amendment #1331 from Sen. Lee (R-UT): Caps eligibility for Affordable Care Act (ACA) premium tax credits (PTCs) to households making 500 percent of less of the federal poverty level. In 2021, this is $64,400 for individuals and $132,500 for a family of four—sensible limits for generous PTCs that already cost taxpayers tens of billions of dollars per year.
Labor/Employment
- Amendment #1136 from Sen. Lee (R-UT): Eliminates the labor pension bailout. Taxpayers should not bail out multiemployer pension funds whose decades of mismanagement predates the COVID-19 pandemic.
Transportation and Infrastructure
- Amendment #1121 from Sen. Lee (R-UT): Cuts funding for the Coronavirus Capital Projects Fund within the portion of the bill providing aid to state and local governments. The $350 billion in appropriations for this part of the legislation is much too high, and this Lee amendment would cut $10 billion.
- Amendment #1132 from Sen. Lee (R-UT): Cuts funding for Amtrak, which is not directly related to COVID-19 relief.
- Amendment #1133 from Sen. Lee (R-UT): Cuts funding for public transportation. With a nearly $2 trillion price tag, this amendment would remove some extraneous spending.
Technology
- Amendment #1315 from Sen. Thune (R-SD): Strikes a provision relating to reporting for third party network transactions. This would eliminate a section of the legislation that increases administrative burdens for transportation network companies and makes it more difficult for workers to participate in the gig economy. The provision is unrelated to COVID-19.
Education
- Amendment #1134 from Sen. Lee (R-UT): Cuts funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), which is unrelated to the COVID-19 pandemic. CPB already received $75 million in supplemental appropriations from the CARES Act.
- Amendment #1214 from Sen. Lee (R-UT): Cuts $135 million in funding for the National Endowment for the Arts, which already received $75 million in supplemental appropriations from the CARES Act.
- Amendment #1215 from Sen. Lee (R-UT): Cuts $135 million in funding for the National Endowment for the Humanities, which already received $75 million in supplemental appropriations from the CARES Act.
If you have any questions, please contact Director of Federal Policy Andrew Lautz at alautz@ntu.org or Policy and Government Affairs Associate Will Yepez at wyepez@ntu.org.