By Karen Stokes
Gene Sperling, White House American Rescue Plan Coordinator (Photo/Whitehouse.gov)
On May 24th, the American Rescue Plan Implementation Team and the Domestic Policy Council released their interim American Rescue Plan Equity Report. It covers 32 different American Rescue Plan programs that represent nearly $900 billion or 60 percent of American Rescue Plan funds excluding Economic Impact Payments (i.e., stimulus checks).
“I think one of the lessons learned that was very positive is that the American Rescue Plan gives funds directly to virtually every city and county. I think we’re seeing that when mayors are given the ability to get funds directly, they’re able to do more creative things that fit the specific needs of their community,” said Gene Sperling, White House American Rescue Plan Coordinator.
The report, together with ongoing economic statistics provides further evidence that the American Rescue Plan spurred the most equitable recovery in memory. Some of the highlights are:
-Historic National Eviction Prevention – helping 5 million renter households
-American Rescue Plan policies and Biden Administration policies helped drive foreclosures to record lows in 2021 – at just 151,000 homes in foreclosure, less than a third of pre-pandemic levels
-More jobs were created in rural communities in 2021 than in any other year in the last two decades.
-Hispanic Unemployment – record calendar year drop & below pre-pandemic rate at just 4.1%
-Asian American Unemployment – down to 3.1%
-Made PPP available to the smallest businesses and those in low- and moderate- income communities:
-Black Entrepreneurship was 17% above pre-pandemic in 2021.
-In April 2022, there were 233,000 more Black workers with jobs than in February 2020.
“Black unemployment is still too high but it has come down the fastest in 40 years,” said Sperling. “Actually it’s better today than it was in Feb 2020 before the pandemic hit and after the Great Recession (2007-2009).”
The American Rescue Plan helped power a historic recovery which led to the largest job growth ever in a calendar year, saw unemployment claims decline from nearly 20 million when President Biden took office to close to 1 million and unemployment reach 3.6% – a level the Congressional Budget Office did not predict our nation would reach during the entire decade.
For more information on the American Rescue Plan go to Whitehouse.gov.