Biden signs $1.9 trillion Covid relief package

By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 11 March 2021 at 3:25 pm

$1,400 stimulus checks, $12 million in aid to local governments in Orleans County

President Joe Biden

President Joe Biden this afternoon signed the $1.9 trillion America Rescue Plan that will deliver $1,400 checks for Americans with household incomes less than $150,000 or individuals earning less than $75,000 a year.

The legislation also includes $300 in weekly federal unemployment payments through Sept. 6. That weekly amount was $400 in an earlier bill approved by the House, but then was reduced to $300 by the Senate and in the final version approved by the House on Wednesday.

The America Rescue Plan passed without any Republican support in the House or Senate, although Biden said Republican governors, mayors and county executives pushed for the relief package.

The plan includes $23.8 billion for New York to the state and local governments, including over $12 million for the Orleans County government, the 10 towns and four villages.

That amount per municipality in Orleans includes:

  • Albion: $880,000
  • Barre: $210,000
  • Carlton: $310,000
  • Clarendon: $380,000
  • Gaines: $350,000
  • Kendall: $290,000
  • Murray: $510,000
  • Ridgeway: $690,000
  • Shelby: $550,000
  • Yates: $260,000
  • Orleans County: $7.83 million

The village amounts will be taken from six of the 10 towns listed above. The village amounts haven’t been released yet.

Biden is scheduled to give a national address tonight about the $1.9 trillion plan. He signed the bill into law this afternoon at the White House. Biden said the funding is about “rebuilding the backbone of this country” and “giving people in this nation, working people, the middle class folks, the people who built this nation a fighting chance, that is the essence of this.”


Gov. Andrew Cuomo issued this statement on the $1.9 billion plan:

“Extraordinary times call for extraordinary action, and the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan that President Biden signed into law today meets that mandate. This historic package is both what the American people demanded and what they deserve – a lifeline to state and local governments, essential workers, and small businesses; a stimulus for our vaccination efforts; a boost to lift Americans and children out of poverty; a catalyst for our economic recovery and revitalization.

“Everyone who worked tirelessly to make this legislation a reality – especially President Biden, Vice President Harris, Speaker Pelosi, our Senators, Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, and our New York Democratic Congressional Delegation – should be proud of what they accomplished today.

“It’s fitting that this legislation was signed one year to the day since the World Health Organization declared the Covid-19 virus a pandemic. Let today be the day we finish one of the longest, darkest chapters of our history, and together start building a revitalized, resilient, renewed America.”