Spending Package That Included The Coronavirus Stimulus Increases Illegal Streaming Penalties
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The omnibus spending bill Congress passed Dec. 21, which included the coronavirus stimulus package, includes provisions that would make profiting from hosting illegally streamed unlicensed media a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison, according to The Independent.
The latest iteration of the copyright legislation was introduced by Republican North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis, The Independent reported. A press release from Tillis office explained that his bill only punishes the hosts of illegal streams, and not their internet consumers. Tillis originally introduced his legislation as a standalone bill, the Protect Lawful Streaming Act, alongside five Democrat and four Republican cosponsors.
The original bill and rider do not target individual consumers of illegally-streamed content. The bill is narrowly targeted so that only criminal organizations are punished and that no individual streamer has to worry about the fear of prosecution, Tillis said according to the statement.
Some legislators criticized Congresss legislative priorities. Alluding to the COVID-19 relief spending package, Republican Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley tweeted that congressional negotiators ouldnt give working people a single penny more despite their corporate and government giveaways.
And here comes the lists of corporate & government giveaways but remember, negotiators said we couldnt give working people a single penny more
How Likely Is A Fourth Stimulus Check
Don’t hold your breath, according to Wall Street analysts. “I think it’s unlikely at this time,” Raymond James analyst Ed Mills told CNBC. One reason is that the Biden administration is focused on advancing its infrastructure plan, which would reshape the economy by rebuilding aging schools, roads and airports, as well as investing in projects ranging from affordable housing to broadband.
The proposal, which the White House says would be funded by boosting the corporate tax rate from 21% to 28%, will likely consume lawmakers this fall, said Stifel’s Brian Gardner in an August 11 research note.
“The fall is shaping up to be a busy time in Washington as Congress tries to finish two infrastructure bills , approve the annual spending bills, and raise the debt ceiling,” he noted.
Your Family Might Receive A Bigger Child Tax Credit
The plan includes major enhancements to the Child Tax Credit, making benefits more generous for tens of millions of families.
First, the bill increases this years benefit from $2,000 per child to $3,600 for children under the age of six and $3,000 for all other children, including dependent 17-year-olds, who had previously been ineligible. According to a report from the Center on Budget Policy and Priorities, the increase is expected to reduce childhood poverty by 40% this year.
The tax credit, which is usually non-refundable, will be made fully refundable for the year 2021, meaning families can claim the full benefit even if its more than the amount of income tax they owe. The bill also removes the $2,500 income requirement that previously kept the poorest of parents from receiving the help in the first place.
In order to get the tax credit into the hands of more people as quickly as possible, the bill authorizes the IRS to send out monthly payments between July and December 2021 to families who opt in, instead of waiting for them to file taxes next year. However, questions still remain on whether or not the IRS will be able to accommodate such a major system overhaul in such a short period of time.
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The Bill Would Give Out $1400 Stimulus Checks
Individuals making under $75,000 and married couples making under $150,000 would receive direct payments of $1,400 per person. The bill would also provide $1,400 per dependent.
The payments would gradually decrease above those income levels and disappear entirely above an income cap: $80,000 for individuals and $160,000 for married couples.
Those caps were lowered from the thresholds in the Houses version of the stimulus plan, which set the cutoffs at $100,000 for individuals and $200,000 for married couples.
Biden’s Covid Stimulus Plan: It Costs $19tn But What’s In It
The US is poised to pass its third major spending package of the pandemic – a $1.9tn plan that President Joe Biden has championed as a way to help struggling Americans.
Leaders of his Democratic Party, which has a slim majority in Congress, are planning to pass the so-called American Rescue Plan by mid-March. The Senate approved it on Saturday, with the lower House of Representatives expected to endorse it next week.
Republicans say the plan is unnecessarily large and stuffed with Democratic priorities unrelated to the pandemic.
But Mr Biden and his team maintain the US must “act big” and that the extra cash is being spent on those most affected by the crisis – the poor, minorities and women.
Democrats on Thursday saw their push for a minimum wage hike thrown into question after a Senate arbiter ruled it must be removed from the Covid package.
Here are some of the key elements, with analysis by BBC correspondent Anthony Zurcher who ranks how much each component has support from Republicans .
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What Didn’t Make It: $15 Minimum Wage
President Joe Biden’s initial plan called for increasing the national minimum wage to $15 per hour by 2025, more than doubling the current rate and increasing wages for an estimated 27 million workers. But the controversial proposal lacked support among key moderate Democrats in the Senate.
Last month, the Senate parliamentarian ordered the wage rise be removed from the bill. She said it did not meet the guidelines necessary to be included under the budget process Democrats plan to use to advance the aid package.
AZ: In the end, it was the Senate parliamentarian who killed the minimum wage increase, ruling that it would take 60 votes to pass. At the moment, just isn’t that kind of support in the Senate for a $15 wage – or among Democrats to overrule the parliamentarian – but the door is still open to a compromise on a lower minimum outside of the Covid relief package.
Republican support: 1/5
Schools Child Care And Student Debt
The bill includes over $125 billion to help K-12 schools open, with some of the funding targeted at measures that address learning loss since the start of the pandemic.
Republicans offered an amendment to require that schools that receive the funding hold in-person classes once vaccinations are available to teachers, but it failed along party lines.
For younger children, $39 billion goes toward child care providers, who have been financially stressed by the pandemic.
Another $40 billion is set aside for higher education, half of which is reserved for financial aid for students.
The bill also includes a provision that could make it easier for Biden to eliminate student debt later by not requiring beneficiaries to pay taxes on the canceled loans. Biden has said he might cancel up to $10,000 in student debt using executive action some Democrats are pushing him to go higher.
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New Stimulus Package Update: When Will The Stimulus Check Arrive
The stimulus money promised under the American Rescue Plan began to hit the bank accounts of many Americans on March 17, 2021 the first official payment date. Treasury and Internal Revenue Service officials have guaranteed that the relief packages will soon reach all eligible citizens. The payments will be released in batches over several weeks, with some coming in the mail in the form of checks or debit cards. The Treasury Department has been working with financial institutions to try to ensure that payments arrive more quickly this time around than they did last year.
Hospitals Gets Their Wish: $100 Billion
What they got: Health care providers would secure $100 billion in grants to help fight the coronavirus and make up for dollars they have lost by delaying elective surgeries and other procedures to focus on the outbreak. They would also get a 20 percent bump in Medicare payments for treating patients with the virus.
Why it matters: This figure is exactly what three powerful groups representing physicians, hospitals and nurses had demanded, though for-profit hospitals were lobbying for much more. But there are still questions about whether there will be significant guardrails on how the money will be split up. The coronavirus will hit rural hospitals especially hard, since they already operate on thin margins and have limited staffing capacity. So some lawmakers have been working to ensure enough money goes to those sites.
CORONAVIRUS: WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
President Donald Trump and Melania Trump have tested positive for Covid-19.
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No $15 Minimum Wage Increase Right Now
Senate Democrats jettisoned a provision in the relief bill to boost the minimum wage, after the Senate parliamentarian, who determines which items can and can’t be included in the bill under a technique known as budget reconciliation, determined that the provision fell outside of guidelines. Proponents will look to include the $15 hourly rate in another bill.
“If any Senator believes this is the last time they will cast a vote on whether or not to give a raise to 32 million Americans, they are sorely mistaken,” Sen. Bernie Sanders tweeted March 5. “We’re going to keep bringing it up, and we’re going to get it done because it is what the American people demand and need.”
Money For Vaccine Distribution
- The bill includes $20 billion for the purchase of coronavirus vaccines that will make the vaccine available at no charge for anyone who needs it, according to a summary circulated by Scalises office. It also provides $8 billion for vaccine distribution and includes $20 billion to assist states with coronavirus testing.
- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer said in a statement that billions were reserved specifically for combating the disparities facing communities of color, and to support our heroic health care workers and providers.
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Food Stamps And Child Nutrition: $25 Billion
What they got: The stimulus includes nearly $25 billion for food assistance, including nearly $16 billion for SNAP and nearly $9 billion for child nutrition.
Why it matters: Senate Democrats were unable to secure a 15 percent increase to households’ SNAP benefits. Congressional leaders acknowledge that they may need to provide additional rounds of food assistance in future legislative relief packages.
Obamacare And Cobra Money
With surprisingly little fanfare, the legislation includes some of the biggest changes to the Affordable Care Act since President Barack Obama signed it in 2010.
The bill boosts subsidies for customers who buy insurance through the ACA, lowering premiums across the board and outright eliminating them on benchmark plans for people making under 150 percent of the federal poverty level.
For the first time, people making over 400 percent of the federal poverty level can qualify for federal help, as well, with their premiums capped at 8.5 percent of income. The new subsidies are for only two years Democrats are likely to try to extend them.
The federal government would also cover a larger share of Medicaid expenses if states that haven’t expanded the program through the ACA choose to do so now. Twelve states have opted out of Medicaid expansion. It’s unclear whether their governors and legislatures will take up the offer.
Outside of the ACA changes, people who have left jobs during the pandemic and want to maintain their existing employer insurance can get 100 percent of their premiums subsidized through COBRA, the law that allows workers to carry over their work plans.
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Paid Leave And Health Insurance Help
The plan provides incentives to employers to offer paid sick leave to staff who contract Covid-19, are exposed to the virus and must quarantine or are caring for sick family members. But it does not make leave a requirement, as initially proposed.
It also aims to make it easier for more people to buy health insurance independently.
AZ: Republicans have been OK with providing temporary support for those directly affected by the coronavirus pandemic. They balk, however, at more money going to the government workforce – and the thought that this could be a back door to a permanent federally mandated family leave programme.
Republican support: 2/5
Money Would Go To Fight The Pandemic And To Help States Local Governments And Schools
The bill would provide funding for vaccine distribution as well as coronavirus testing, contact tracing and genomic sequencing. It would give money to the Federal Emergency Management Agency as well.
It would provide $350 billion for states, local governments, territories and tribal governments, and it contains about $130 billion for schools. It also includes funding for colleges and universities, transit agencies, housing aid, child care providers and food assistance.
In addition, the bill contains funding to help businesses, including restaurants and live venues, and it includes a bailout for multiemployer pension plans that are financially troubled.
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Stimulus Package: Here’s What’s In Biden’s $1
If You Have Kids Or Dependents:
The relief package also gives aid to parents, primarily through increased SNAP benefits, increased child tax credits, and stimulus checks for dependents.
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Expanded eligibility for $1,400 stimulus checks for adult dependents, including the elderly, college students, and people with disabilities .
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Mixed-status families or those with one undocumented parent are also eligible for stimulus checks, though undocumented parents will not receive payments.
If you make less than $65,000 a year putting you in the bottom 60% of earners you could see an 11% increase in your income from the combination of relief checks and tax credits, according to estimates from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy.
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Telemedicine Investment: $200 Million
What they got: The Trump administration would get $200 million for boosting Skype-style health checkups by investing in services and devices that help health care providers connect remotely with patients.
Why it matters: The FCC helps run a rural health care program devoted to subsidizing the connectivity for health care providers, which gives it some stake in telehealth. The total jives with what FCC Chairman Ajit Pai requested earlier this month. This represents just the FCC’s stake in telemedicine, not other parts of the government.
No Cash For The Oil Stash
What they got: The bill does not include the $3 billion Trump sought to fulfill his promise this month of filling the country’s oil stockpile “right up to the top” as a way to aid U.S. drillers amid a price decline. Democrats also failed to clinch language extending tax breaks for renewable energy industries.
Why it matters: This fight isnt over. Congress has made plenty of deals in the past that combine something for clean energy companies with something for the oil industry most recently in 2015 when lawmakers agreed to end a ban on oil exports and extend several tax breaks for renewable energy.
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Student Loan Cancellation May Be Available For Fewer Student Loan Borrowers
Not everyone may get student loan forgiveness. Before theres any student loan cancellation, Congress needs to agree on how much student loan forgiveness and who qualifies. In a push for national unity, Biden prefers bipartisan legislation in Congress. This doesnt mean he wont sign legislation that only Democrats support. However, while there are many changes for student loans this year, Biden may prefer legislation that incorporates input from both parties in Congress. This could have potential implications for student loan cancellation. For example, Republicans want a lower income threshold to qualify for stimulus checks. Schumer and Sen. Elizabeth Warren want student loan cancellation for borrowers with an annual income of less than $125,000. If Congress passes student loan cancellation, will Congress shrink the pie through various qualification hoops? For example, will Congress lower the income threshold for student loan cancellation to $100,000 or $50,000? Will only federal student loans be included? Will there only be certain types of federal student loans ? There are different ways to expand or limit student loan forgiveness. If stimulus checks are limited by size, income threshold, or both, this could be a preview of what may come with student loan cancellation.