Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act

The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, also known as the CARES Act, is a $2.2trillion economic stimulus bill passed by the 116th U.S. Congress and signed into law by President Donald Trump on March 27, 2020, in response to the economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. The spending primarily includes $300billion in one-time cash payments to individual people who submit a tax return in America (with most single adults receiving $1,200 and families with children receiving more), $260billion in increased unemployment benefits, the creation of the Paycheck Protection Program that provides forgivable loans to small businesses with an initial $350billion in funding (later increased to $669billion by subsequent legislation), $500billion in loans for corporations, and $339.8 billion to state and local governments. The original CARES Act proposal included $500billion in direct payments to Americans, $208billion in loans to major industry, and $300billion in Small Business Administration loans. As a result of bipartisan negotiations, the bill grew to $2trillion in the version unanimously passed by the Senate on March 25, 2020. It was passed by the House via voice vote the next day, and was signed into law by President Donald Trump on March 27. It was originally introduced in the U.S. Congress on January 24, 2019, as (Middle Class Health Benefits Tax Repeal Act of 2019). To comply with the Origination Clause of the Constitution, the Senate then used H.R. 748 as a shell bill for the CARES Act, changing the content of the bill and renaming it before passing it. Unprecedented in size and scope, the legislation was the largest economic stimulus package in U.S. history, amounting to 10% of total U.S. gross domestic product. The bill is much larger than the $831billion stimulus act passed in 2009 as part of the response to the Great Recession. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that it will add $1.7trillion to the deficits over the 2020–2030 period, with nearly all the impact in 2020 and 2021. Lawmakers refer to the bill as "Phase 3" of Congress's coronavirus response. The first phase was the Coronavirus Preparedness and Response Supplemental Appropriations Act that provided for vaccine research and development. The Families First Coronavirus Response Act, which focused on unemployment and sick leave compensation, was phase 2. All three phases were enacted the same month.