A second stimulus check for Americans who need money for COVID-19 was almost certain to arrive after the House of Representatives passed the $3-trillion HEROES Act on May 15.
How much that guarantee is worth and when it will be delivered is up to the U. S. Senate, which is debating the many provisions in the HEROES Act, including the enormously popular $1,200 direct payment to American workers.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky) has endorsed the idea of a second stimulus check but has hinted that a lot less people will be getting one this time.
“We want another round of direct payments to help American families keep driving our national comeback,” McConnell said. “I believe that people making less than $40,000 a year have been hit the hardest.” We’re going to be acutely aware of that particular segment of our population going into this next package. ”.
The Senate, which is run by Republicans, will try to cut back on the HEROES Act’s second stimulus check and other parts that don’t fit into the $1 trillion budget they want for this relief bill. McConnel is hoping to get the bill to a vote by the end of the week.
The rush is on because some parts of the CARES Act that passed unanimously back in March, are due to expire July 31. Coincidentally, that’s the same day the House of Representatives goes on a five-week vacation. The Senate is scheduled to go out for a month on Aug. 7, so time is a factor in getting this done.
Senators probably will have a chance to vote on their version of another relief bill and it’s expected to be considerably different from the HEROES Act that was passed two months ago in the House. Some of the questions to be answered in the Senate bill include:
In other words, will the HEROES Act do something truly heroic and get the debt collectors off everyone’s back?
These are some of the urgent questions that more than 17 million unemployed Americans are asking.
Countless Americans who have suffered job losses, foreclosures, bankruptcies, broken families, serious depression, and other illnesses during the coronavirus lockdown have had their hopes raised by the HEROES Act.
The coronavirus relief bill, championed by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi passed by the Democrat-run House of Representatives by a margin of 208 to 199.
But what’s really in the HEROES Act? And what’s just political posturing and more false hope in this Three Horses of the Apocalypse year America is going through? The combination of the COVID-19 pandemic, the resulting lockdowns that devastated the economy, the riots that broke out in numerous cities and the looming bitterest presidential election campaign (or non-campaign), make this one of the most important pieces of legislation in modern U.S. history.
Recently, there has been a lot of talk about whether or not hazard pay laws for essential workers during the COVID-19 pandemic passed Congress. As long as frontline workers are still at risk for health problems, there are ongoing talks about giving them more money. But did a bill about hazard pay really pass both houses and get signed into law? Let’s look at what happened and what it means.
The HEROES Act and Initial Hazard Pay Provisions
In May 2020, the US. House of Representatives passed the Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus Emergency Solutions (HEROES) Act This sweeping $3 trillion stimulus package included $200 billion allocated for “pandemic premium pay” – essentially hazard pay bonuses – for essential workers.
The HEROES Act said that essential workers should get an extra $13 an hour, up to a maximum of $10,000 or $5,000, depending on how much money they made. People who make less than $200,000 a year could get up to $10,000 in hazard pay, and people who make more than $200,000 could get up to $5,000. The money was paid back to January 27, 2020, and would keep coming in for another 60 days after the pandemic ended.
So the initial hazard pay provision passed the House but still needed Senate approval.
Stalling in the Senate
The House of Representatives passed the HEROES Act, but the Senate, which is run by Republicans, held it up. The GOP didn’t agree with many parts of the broad package and called it a “liberal wishlist.” There was no specific language about hazard pay, but the bill as a whole was deemed “dead on arrival.” “.
The leader of the Senate, Mitch McConnell, said that his chamber would probably take up a “smaller” COVID relief bill. Some Senate Republicans spoke out in favor of giving frontline workers extra pay for taking risks, so a scaled-back version was still a possibility. But the HEROES Act framework looked unlikely to advance.
Other Federal Hazard Pay Proposals
The HEROES Act was not the only federal hazard pay proposal circulated. In May 2020, Senator Mitt Romney introduced the Patriot Pay Act, which would have provided essential workers with bonuses equal to $12 per hour extra from May to July, capped at $12,000. It targeted lower-income employees making under $90,000 annually. But this bill did not advance either.
President Trump also expressed support for hazard pay for healthcare workers. In April 2020, he called additional compensation for doctors, nurses and others on the pandemic frontlines “so important.” But ultimately none of these federal proposals passed both chambers.
State and Local Action
With federal hazard pay stalled, some states and localities created their own premium pay programs for essential workers, though tight budgets made that difficult. For example, Vermont allocated grants to employers to provide up to $2,000 in hazard pay per employee. Cities like Seattle and Los Angeles also implemented smaller-scale hazard pay for grocery workers. But federal legislation did not materialize.
Hazard Pay Absent from Subsequent Relief Bills
Congress did pass additional COVID relief bills even without dedicated hazard pay provisions. The December 2020 package sent direct stimulus checks to individuals but did not include extra compensation specifically for essential workers.
Some hoped hazard pay might resurface in 2021 under full Democratic control, but it was left out of legislation like the American Rescue Plan. Efforts shifted more toward general worker protections versus targeted essential employee pay.
Why Hazard Pay Legislation Stalled
Several key factors contributed to federal hazard pay legislation stalling:
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Cost: The estimated $200 billion price tag of the initial House proposal made some lawmakers balk. There were concerns about the impact on the budget deficit.
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Scope concerns: There were debates around which workers should qualify as “essential” and whether pay should be capped based on income. Complex logistics would have been required for rollout.
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Partisan divisions: COVID relief bills faced party-line disputes. Hazard pay got caught up in broader spending fights despite some bipartisan support.
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Changing priorities: As the pandemic persisted, congressional priorities shifted. Hazard pay fell lower on the list behind stimulus checks, unemployment aid, and vaccines.
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Vaccine rollout: Some policymakers likely felt heightened urgency around hazard pay before vaccines were available to protect frontline workers.
What This Means for Essential Workers
While widely proposed, dedicated hazard pay for essential workers did not ultimately pass at the federal level. Supporters maintained the moral argument that those who risked their lives in vital jobs deserved extra pay.
But without a federal mandate, any additional compensation was left up to state/local governments and individual employers. Some did take action, but many essential workers likely did not receive pandemic premium pay. For most, hazard pay remains an unfinished debate, not a reality.
As the pandemic continues, there could be renewed calls for essential employee compensation. But so far, congressional proposals have yet to make meaningful progress despite prominent discussion of the topic. Any future efforts would face the same tall obstacles that previously stalled momentum.
For now, robust hazard pay legislation sought by advocates as a way to honor frontline workers and account for their risks has not come to fruition in Congress. But the fight for additional essential employee pay could persist as the pandemic drags on.
What Was Left Out of the HEROES Act?
Plenty. Before you get your stimulus check, Democrats will have cut one or two trillion dollars in pandemic aid from the bill while they were negotiating with Republicans.
Don’t expect Republicans to suspend negative credit reporting or freeze debt collection, expand the moratorium on evictions and foreclosures, or provide benefits for banks that service legal cannabis businesses.
The Democrats also left a lot out of the HEROES Act to start. Most notable were proposals for a $2,000 a month stimulus check into the distant future, or to guarantee workers’ wages up to $90,000 a year.
Those dreams got trimmed down to the reality of a one-time second stimulus check that it says here Democrats and Republicans will pass, with a few minor changes, so we can all move on to another question:
When do a get a third stimulus check?
Never, analysts say, at least in this pandemic. This is the last big coronavirus relief package.
At least until the next one!
Bill “No Pay” Fay has lived a meager financial existence his entire life. He started writing/bragging about it in 2012, helping birth Debt. org into existence as the site’s original “Frugal Man. ” Prior to that, he spent more than 30 years covering the high finance world of college and professional sports for major publications, including the Associated Press, New York Times and Sports Illustrated. He doesn’t care as much about sports as he used to, but he is still very determined not to pull out his wallet.
Home > Blog > Details on the HEROES Act
What Is in the HEROES Act?
The HEROES Act is a massive, $3 trillion proposal, even more ambitious than the $2.2-trillion CARES Act.
The sweeping relief legislation promises a second stimulus check, debt relief, student loan forgiveness, hazard pay, six more months of COVID-19 unemployment, housing and food assistance, and nearly $1 trillion in aid for state and local governments so they can pay “vital workers like first responders, health workers, and teachers” who are at risk of losing their jobs due to budget shortfalls.
The HEROES Act also makes changes to the federal government’s new Paycheck Protection Program for small businesses. Small businesses must use at least 25% of the money for payroll costs according to the plan, or they will have to pay it back as a loan.
The new proposal eliminates the 75% requirement, so small businesses could use the money as they pleased. In a classic case of unintended consequences, many businesses found they couldn’t use the money on payroll. Their employees didn’t want to be put back on the payroll because they were making more from COVID-19 unemployment.
The HEROES Act includes a one-time stimulus check payment, similar to the CARES Act, of $1,200 per person up to $6,000 per household, but with several more generous features.
Individuals earning up to $75,000 would get a one-time $1,200 check. Couples earning up to $150,000 would be eligible for $2,400.
The HEROES Act pays $1,200 for each dependent (up to three dependents), more than double the CARES Act payment (which paid $500 per dependent), and allows adult dependents.
The first round of stimulus checks excluded adult dependents, which excluded many college students and immigrants. People without a Social Security number were excluded from the first round of checks. The HEROES Act says all you need is a taxpayer ID number. Republicans aren’t excited over that.
The HEROES Act sets aside $200 billion for hazard pay. Hazard pay would be:
- Given to a wide range of “essential” workers, such as police officers, firefighters, social workers, grocery store clerks, postal workers, childcare workers, and people who work in cafeterias and hospitals.
- People whose regular pay is less than $200,000 per year will get a $13-an-hour raise until they reach a total of $10,000. If they make more than $200,000 a year, they could get up to $5,000.
- Given for 60 days after the end of the pandemic if the $10,000 or $5,000 totals aren’t reached first.
- Hazard pay is given by employers, who apply for it from the government, add it to their workers’ paychecks, and take payroll taxes out of all of them.
The HEROES Act would extend the unemployment benefits from the CARES Act, including the extra $600 weekly federal unemployment benefit, through January 31, 2021. If you’re already receiving Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation (FPUC), your payments could be extended to March 31, 2021.
Gig workers, independent contractors, part-time workers and the self-employed will also be able to take advantage of unemployment benefits through March 2021.
The CARES Act suspended interest and payments for most people with federal student loans through September 30, 2020. Interest will not accrue during that period. The HEROES Act extends that break for another, year through September 30, 2021, and expands it to all federal student loans, including Federal Perkins Loans and some other loans
But the legislation also cancels up to $10,000 for some federal and private loan holders. Democrats scaled this back from a proposed $30,000 in canceled student loan debt.
The HEROES Act also proposes direct emergency cash payments for financially struggling students, including international students, undocumented immigrant students, and DACA students.
Don’t expect Republicans to do cartwheels over any of it.
America’s 40-million-plus renters were overlooked by the CARES Act. Not so the HEROES Act, which provides approximately $100 billion for rental assistance.
Here’s how it would work: An existing nationwide grant rental assistance program would verify a tenant’s inability to pay rent and give vouchers to cover the cost of rent and utilities.
It would also extend the ban on evictions for nonpayment for a year following its enactment date.
The bill also provides $75 billion for a homeowner assistance fund intended to prevent mortgage defaults and property foreclosures.
It would amend the previous stimulus package so that borrowers of any “covered mortgage loan” (any secured by a mortgage or deed of trust on one-to-four unit dwelling) would be eligible for forbearance for up to a year if they affirm that the coronavirus has affected them financially.
Previously, only borrowers of federally backed mortgages were eligible for 12 months of forbearance. The legislation also provides a national foreclosure and eviction moratorium for one year, and extends benefits to mortgage servicers, who naturally struggle when the government says they can’t collect mortgage payments.
Don’t get your hopes up for some magic proposal that stops the debt collector in his tracks.
The HEROES Act includes a moratorium on debt collections during the pandemic and 120 days thereafter. Democrats realize this would all but destroy the debt collection business.
So, to make the whole idea more palatable to Republicans, Democrats, usually no fans of debt collectors, included long-term, low-cost loans for debt collectors to compensate them for being denied collecting their debts.
But there’s no way Republicans agree to a moratorium on debt collections, and no way Democrats agree to helping out debt collectors without a moratorium.
Silicon Valley and Signature bank collapses: what is moral hazard, and does anyone care?
FAQ
Should I be getting hazard pay?
There are no laws requiring employers to pay hazard pay. The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) does not address hazard pay. It only requires that hazard pay be included as an employee’s regular pay rate when calculating overtime pay.
How much is federal hazard pay?
In Appendix A to Subpart I of 5 CFR 550, you can find a list of the conditions and pay rates for dangerous work. Regardless of the number of hazards encountered in a day, total hazard differential pay for any day may not exceed 25 percent of the employee’s rate of basic pay for that day (5 U. S. C. 5545(d)(2)).
Does OSHA require hazard pay?
California does not have a law that requires employers to provide hazardous duty pay. Though some employers choose to provide hazard pay to their full-time or part-time employees.
How much is hazard pay in Florida?
How much does a Hazard pay make in Florida? The average hazard pay salary in Florida is $54,356 per year or $26. 13 per hour. Entry level positions start at $50,700 per year while most experienced workers make up to $64,106 per year.
How many versions of the hazard pay bill are there?
There is one version of the bill to provide hazard pay to frontline essential workers employed during the COVID–19 pandemic.
Who is the sponsor of the hazard pay bill?
To provide hazard pay to frontline essential workers employed during the COVID-19 pandemic. The bill’s titles are written by its sponsor. Sponsor. Representative for New Jersey’s 2nd congressional district. Republican. This bill was introduced on September 22, 2020, in a previous session of Congress, but it did not receive a vote.
Does the Heroes Act provide hazard pay funding for essential workers?
Nearly a week ago, the House passed The Heroes Act which provides $200 billion in hazard pay funding for essential workers, among many other things. Questions about risk pay are now pouring in, just like they did when the second stimulus check was talked about. Here are the facts on seven key areas for essential workers and hazard pay.
Who enacted the “hazard pay for essential workers act of 2020?
SECTION 1: This law was passed by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress. Short title; table of contents. (a) Short title . —This Act may be cited as the ‘Hazard Pay for Essential Workers Act of 2020’. (b) Table of contents . —The table of contents for this Act is as follows: Sec. 1.
Is hazard pay dead in the Senate?
Now that the House has passed hazard pay for essential workers, it is presenting the bill to the Senate, and Speaker Nancy Pelosi is urging the Senate to take up the bill and begin negotiations immediately. 2. Is hazard pay dead on arrival in the Senate? Not necessarily.
Who needs to apply for hazard pay Grant funds?
Actually, employers are the ones who need to apply to receive hazard pay grant funds. If approved, they are then required to pay essential workers accordingly. After an employer becomes an “essential work employer,” it will be obligated to provide hazard pay (pandemic premium pay) to its essential workers.
