This Week in Washington

by Matthew Rose

We can see a flurry of legislative activity at the committee level on the $1.9 trillion covid packages. We are likely to see the house's most favorable version come out of the house and happen during house committee hearings. This will probably be most apparent in raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2025 and then limiting the stimulus checks' scope to phase out at the higher income levels. With Senate done with impeachment, they will also move to marking up the bill's part and putting their stamp on the package. All of this should result in a final bill by the middle of March. Right before some of the critical programs will expire. However, congress is made these deadlines with mixed results, and it will be a test of democratic control to get the bill passed. It will be an important point to see the bill passed from the House on Friday and then the long battle in the Senate.

There are two policy items of note that I wanted to flag for people to follow:

One of the elements of the bill that doesn’t get much coverage as it should is the enhancement being done around food and nutrition through the SNAP program. The flexibility that have been add to fro the pandemic will be extended for the next round of the bill. States Are Using Much-Needed Temporary Flexibility in SNAP to Respond to COVID-19 Challenges. This has been a change to the way people think about what is possible with SNAP and what the program might look like in the future. There is a real change in what happens to how we understand the needs of hunger and what is required from the underlying programs.  From the last package, there was an increase worth about $27 per person per month, and that would last until June but would be expanded in this package through the end of the fiscal year September 30.

The important piece that is consistent with the democratic message is trying to help make healthcare more affordable. This major legislation gives us clues to how they will approach a stand-alone healthcare bill. There is more of a focus on the tax credit side rather than increases to the subsidy. This does have the issue of requiring expenses to be covered or hanging beforehand and that getting a tax credit after the fact. However, it will allow with the potential timing of the bill to allow people to claim the credit sooner than later with this tax season. The legislation would enhance premium tax credits available through the health insurance marketplaces for two years, boost financial incentives for additional states to rapidly expand Medicaid, and enact other proposals to improve access to health coverage during the health and economic crisis.

Here is a short summary of the overall pieces of the bill