Coronavirus Relief Bills: Accessibility and Sustainability
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Coronavirus Relief Bills: Accessibility and Sustainability
M I N SE O A N G E L IC A K I M A N D Z O F IA M AJ EWSK I
T he coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has brought intense economic hardship to mil-
lions of Americans throughout the United States of America. In response, on March 27,
2020, Congress passed the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, a
bipartisan $2 trillion relief package signed into law by President Donald J. Trump that aimed
to help the American people in an economic and health crisis.1 In this article, we examine the
contents and inadequacies of the first “stimulus bill” or “relief ” bill of the coronavirus pandemic
era. Now, the second stimulus check has been passed, but citizens have already faced delays and
issues with receiving their checks. It seems that many problems from the first round of stimulus
checks were not resolved and remain as hurdles for citizens today. In this article, we will discuss
the economic and societal implications of an unorganized and flawed government approach to
instituting stimulus bills in the era of the COVID-19 pandemic.
CARES Act: The initial plan
The CARES Act was monumental in size at $2 trillion,2 with allocations of $250 billion
for expanded unemployment insurance, $350 billion for small businesses, $300 billion for cash
payments to households, $150 billion for aid to states, $100 billion for emergency funding for
health care supplies and investments, and $450 billion for industry bailouts. Emphasizing “fast
and direct” economic aid to Americans in distress, the CARES Act included significant aid for
the lower working-class: Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA). PUA covered almost all
lost wages for those eligible at $600 per week, including those who were self-employed or gig-
workers. PUA also aided those who were furloughed because of the coronavirus pandemic. For
a short period of time, it seemed that corporations and small businesses alike were able to stay
afloat with this aid. Despite short-term relief, a number of questions concerning accessibility
and sustainability have emerged over time. We discuss some of the major issues in turn below.
Stimulus with an Expiration Date
The pandemic, as of this writing in December 2020, still rages on. Yet as a relief bill,
the CARES Act was meant more as a short-term band aid than long-term solution. The bill only
seriously helped citizens for up to eight weeks during the most drastic economic crisis that the
United States had seen since the Great Depression. A time-based relief package during an un-
predictable global health crisis is bound to leave citizens and businesses in need.
The CARES Act also favored large firms, by relying heavily on the Federal Reserve to
1 “The Treasury Department is Delivering COVID-19 Relief for All Americans” Policy Issues, US Department of the Treasury, ac-
cessed December 10, 2020. https://home.treasury.gov/policy-issues/cares.
2 “Summary of the $2 Trillion Federal CARES Act.” Client Alerts, Keeping You Informed, Parker Poe, Attorneys & Counselors at
Law, accessed January 18, 2021. https://www.parkerpoe.com/news/2020/03/summary-of-the-2-trillion-federal-cares-act.
Minseo Angelica Kim is a junior at Carnegie Mellon University studying
Psychology with a double minor in Philosophy and Politics & Public Policy.
Last fall in Washington, DC, Angelica interned at Public Citizen as well
as the Office of Monitoring and Combating Trafficking in Persons at the
Department of State. On campus, she models in the Lunar Gala and Spirit
Fashion Show. She is also a leader in Alpha Epsilon Delta, a professional
pre-med fraternity, and the Animal Welfare Club.
24
Coronavirus Relief Bills: Accessibility and Sustainability
allocate funds to bigger, more credit-worthy, businesses.3 In the Small Business Administra-
tion’s implementation of the Paycheck Protection Program (or PPP, a program created with
the CARES Act in its assistance to small businesses), lenders were not guided to prioritize dis-
advantaged smaller rural, minority, and women-owned businesses, a decision that negatively
impacted those businesses with lower credit ratings.4
Leaving College Students Behind
There are currently around 12.5 million college students in the United States. College
students over the age of eighteen, identifying as dependents on their tax returns, did not receive
any aid from the CARES Act and were deemed ineligible for the first round of stimulus checks.5
Parents could not claim additional $500 for children over the age of sixteen, completely shutting
out college students from receiving any financial aid from the CARES Act during the pandemic.
Thousands of college students who had lost jobs were still expected to pay rent and tuition
without any financial support. With campuses shutting down, many students were kicked out of
their dorms, lost working computers and other academic technology, and cancelled their meal
plans. College-age students could have benefitted from the $1,200 stimulus checks that were
given to all other age groups. In a Census survey, it was estimated that around sixteen million
Americans had canceled college plans in fear of contracting the virus, and families with less
than $75,000 income were twice as likely to have canceled their college plans.6
The CARES Act had the means of helping young adults through the Higher Education
Emergency Relief Fund (HEERF), directing $14.25 billion to colleges and universities.7 Half of
that amount was dedicated to emergency financial relief grants for college students experiencing
pandemic-related disruptions. However, many colleges did not have adequate systems or out-
reach programs to properly direct those funds to students actually in need. Students faced more
exclusion through HEERF’s specific and extensive regulations. International, undocumented, or
those enrolled in distance-only programs were barred from receiving aid from HEERF. Interna-
tional students faced the dilemma of returning to their native country or finding immediate re-
placement housing in the States, while undocumented students found their families at loss with
failing small businesses– all financial costs that could have been alleviated by the CARES Act.
3 Grace Enda, William G. Gale, and Claire Haldeman. “Careful or Careless? Perspectives on the CARES Act.” Brookings (blog),
March 27, 2020. https://www.brookings.edu/blog/up-front/2020/03/27/careful-or-careless-perspectives-on-the-cares-act/. Kathryn
Judge, “The Design Flaw At The Heart Of The CARES Act,” Forbes, April 20, 2020, accessed December 10, 2020, https://www.forbes.
com/sites/kathrynjudge/2020/04/20/the-design-flaw-at-the-heart-of-the-cares-act/.
4 “Flash Report Small Business Administration’s Implementation of the Paycheck Protection Program Requirements,” Small Busi-
ness Administration, May 8, 2020, 40. https://www.sba.gov/document/report-20-14-flash-report-small-business-administrations-
implementation-paycheck-protection-program-requirements.
5 Ellie Rushing, “‘We Are Forgotten’: Despite Mounting Costs, College Students Are Excluded from $1,200 Stimulus Checks,” The
Inquirer, April 8, 2020, accessed December 10, 2020. https://www.inquirer.com/education/coronavirus-stimulus-checks-college-
students-excluded-philadelphia-20200408.html.
6 Al Tompkins, “College students are dropping out at an alarming rate.” Poynter, September 18, 2020, accessed January 16, 2021,
https://www.poynter.org/newsletters/2020/college-students-are-dropping-out-at-an-alarming-rate/
7 “Financial Assistance Related to COVID-19” Student Financial Services, Division of Enrollment Services, Carnegie Mellon Uni-
versity, accessed December 10, 2020. https://www.cmu.edu/sfs/financial-aid/covid/index.html.
Zofia Majewski is a junior at Carnegie Mellon University pursuing an in-
terdisciplinary degree in Vocal Performance and Politics & Public Policy
while minoring in Environmental and Sustainability Studies. During the
2020-21 academic year, Zofia is interning as a writer for the Smithsonian
Institution’s Folkways Magazine. She is looking to continue her studies at
law school to eventually become an intellectual property attorney.
25Minseo Angelica Kim and Zofia Majewski
Lack of Care for Minorities
Alarmingly, recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
showed that minorities were extremely disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 virus.
These numbers could be attributed to factors like how people of color were more likely to be
of a lower socioeconomic status, leading to higher possibilities of experiences with multigen-
erational homes, crowded conditions, public transportation, essential service work, and lack of
healthcare.8 Despite the pronounced need for financial assistance for affected minority families,
data has shown that by late May (almost three months after the pandemic was declared a na-
tional emergency), more middle class households received checks than poor American families,
and more white people (75 percent of white adults) were approved stimulus checks than Black
(69 percent) and Hispanic (63 percent) people.9 Those who do not have social security num-
bers also were not eligible to receive any relief money. This distinction excludes relief checks
for those who were Dreamers or families of those with only Individual Taxpayer Identification
Numbers (ITIN).10
The CARES Act and PPP have not made it any easier for small minority, immigrant
businesses. Hundreds of immigrant-owned small businesses like restaurants, gas stations, nail
salons, dry cleaners, have been closed by government-mandated shutdowns. Data showed
that immigrants became small business owners at four-times the rate than that of native born
Americans,11 meaning more immigrants faced PPP restrictions and regulatory issues. However,
immigrants and minority groups clearly lacked access to these stimulus programs. The Internal
Revenue Service (IRS) forms were created by trained accountants and often consisted of diffi-
cult terminology, yet were expected to be filled out by minorities who may not have been native
speakers or lacked in education and/or resources. The IRS forms offered few languages outside
of the default English, and even those forms were inevitably processed at a slower pace.12
During quarantine, most Americans relied on essential workers who made minimum
wage to provide fresh produce, take-out delivery, and janitorial services that are essential for the
economy and general welfare. However, many of these low-paid essential workers who risked
their health were unprotected by the CARES Act. Unauthorized immigrants make up a quarter
of farmworkers and eight percent of service workers.13 Yet the eleven million unauthorized im-
migrants (of which six million are taxpayers with an IRS-established ITIN), who were just as
vulnerable to the virus as the other American taxpayers, were not eligible for CARES Act as-
sistance. Even American citizens who had family with mixed immigration statuses (any family
member used an ITIN) were denied stimulus checks. This absence of help not only hurt a huge
community; it also put public health and safety at risk. Without financial assistance, undocu-
mented workers were forced to work regardless of the government’s warnings to stay home,
posing a risk to public health. If the undocumented workers contracted the virus, they then had
no financial capacity to pay for medical attention, further worsening the impact of COVID in
the United States. In the unprecedented situation of a global pandemic, when an emphasis on
universal care and altruism was needed, minority communities, especially undocumented im-
8 “Why Is COVID-19 More Severely Affecting People of Color?” Mayo Clinic, August 13, 2020. https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseas-
es-conditions/coronavirus/expert-answers/coronavirus-infection-by-race/faq-20488802.
9 Aimee Picchi, “White Americans Got Their Stimulus Checks More Promptly than Blacks and Hispanics.” CBS News, July 17, 2020.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/stimulus-checks-white-people-faster-black/.
10 Grace Enda, William G. Gale, and Claire Haldeman, “Careful or Careless? Perspectives on the CARES Act.”
11 FINSUM, “Immigrant Small Business Owners Left Behind by PPP.” Nasdaq, accessed December 10, 2020. https://www.nasdaq.
com/articles/immigrant-small-business-owners-left-behind-by-ppp-2020-04-26.
12 Heather Long, Jeff Stein, Lisa Rein, and Tony Romm, “Stimulus checks and other coronavirus relief hindered by dated technology
and rocky government rollout,” Washington Post, April 17, 2020, accessed January 16, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/busi-
ness/2020/04/17/stimulus-unemployment-checks-delays-government-delays/
13 Nicole Narea, “For Immigrants without Legal Status, Federal Coronavirus Relief Is out of Reach,” Vox, May 5, 2020, https://www.
vox.com/2020/5/5/21244630/undocumented-immigrants-coronavirus-relief-cares-act.
26Coronavirus Relief Bills: Accessibility and Sustainability
migrants, faced additional penalties that were fueled by racial disparities.
Immigrants and college students alike have been calling for improved stimulus pack-
ages that would include previously-excluded communities to be eligible for financial aid. Some
think tanks have also recommended that all minority communities have abundant access to
COVID-19 testing and treatment, as well as an expansion on unemployment benefits.14 All
income-eligible residents, regardless of immigration status or identity, deserve to receive help
from the US government in situations of great, unpredictable danger.
Problems with the IRS and Stimulus Checks
The IRS was initially instructed to send stimulus checks to families as fast as possible,
but this may have backfired, as multiple families faced glitches during the process of filing for
assistance. The CARES Act was unevenly regulated and many either received their relief check
late, at a different amount, or not at all. Those who did not receive a check, even if they explicitly
applied for one, must now receive the amount in their 2021 tax returns, over a year after they
were expecting, and needing, relief.15
When the CARES Act was first introduced, there were multiple reports that people had
struggled to get any instruction from the IRS’ “Get My Payment” website. When using the IRS
provided tools to track payment statuses, many users were rejected with the simple statement
of “Payment Status Not Available”, facing no answers or instructions in fixing the situation.16
Furthermore, the website was only updated every twenty-four hours and kicked out users with
multiple login attempts, forcing citizens to sit and wait for indefinite, delayed financial assis-
tance in desperate situations. Social security recipients faced multiple delays in receiving their
payments. Several households had missing or inaccurate checks, with multiple parents missing
their promised additional $500 for each child they had under the age of sixteen. Millions of
people using tax preparation services, specifically up to twenty-one million affected tax filers,
were unable to receive their stimulus checks due to the lack of a compatible system between
the IRS tools and outside tax preparation companies. It was clear that the government was not
prepared to successfully and evenly administer aid within multiple communities.
Waiting for and Debating the Second Stimulus
With the drawbacks of the CARES act in sight, the HEROES Act was passed by the
House on May 15, 2020, but was not passed by the Republican majority Senate.17 In response,
and a continuation, to the CARES Act, the HEROES Act covered many bases that were in need
of revision in the CARES Act. At a total of $3 trillion, the HEROES Act sought to continue relief
funding for a struggling nation. The bill sought to increase the amount of stimulus money for
dependents (from CARES’ $500 to $1,200), extend general enhanced unemployment until Janu-
ary 2021, expand eligibility for the Paycheck Protection Program, increase employee tax credits,
expand eviction protections and moratoriums, and allocate $80 billion for school reopenings.
Because of the lack of support for the HEROES Act, more bills have been introduced. A
$1 trillion HEALS Act and subsequently $2.2 Trillion revised HEROES Act 2.0 have both been
passed by the House but not approved by the Senate. Although these acts addressed the social
welfare shortcomings of the CARES Act, they did not all cover big-business bailouts. The Senate
14 Narea, “For Immigrants without Legal Status, Federal Coronavirus Relief Is out of Reach.”
15 “What to Know about the Economic Impact Payments (Stimulus Checks)” Get It Back: Tax Credits for People Who Work.” Cen-
ter on Budget & Policy Priorities, accessed December 10, 2020, https://www.eitcoutreach.org/tax-filing/coronavirus/what-to-know-
about-the-economic-impact-payments-stimulus-checks/.
16 Heather Long and Michelle Singletary, “Glitches Prevent $1,200 Stimulus Checks from Reaching Millions of Americans.” Wash-
ington Post, April 16, 2020, https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/04/16/coronavirus-cares-stimulus-check/.
17 Nita M. Lowey, “Actions - H.R.6800 - 116th Congress (2019-2020): The Heroes Act.” Webpage, July 23, 2020., https://www.
congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/6800/all-actions.
27Minseo Angelica Kim and Zofia Majewski
has prioritized the economy of credit-worthy businesses over the aid of working and lower-
class citizens. The HEALS Act is the only one of these bills that addresses coronavirus liability
protections for large businesses, hospitals, and schools–with liability shields lasting for up to
five years.18 Although no one bill has promised to cover every need of the people, the need for a
comprehensive bill Congress can compromise on transcends party lines.
Because a second relief bill had yet to pass through both the House and the Senate until
late December 2020, the country hovered in its economic depression while clinging onto the
last rewards of the CARES Act. The media had prepared the public for the worst, with sources
stating that citizens should not be expecting a second round of stimulus checks before the end
of the year.19 A last-minute effort to answer the public’s pleas had been achieved with President
Trump’s signage of a $900 million pandemic relief package on the twenty-first of December.20
In light of the newest COVID-19 era stimulus package, there are already complaints
and deficiencies similar to the ones aforementioned. In this second finalized stimulus bill, many
are still awaiting their promised checks, midway through January 2021.21 The IRS, legally re-
quired to get checks to the accounts of American citizens by January 15, has, in the process, sent
some funds to “inactive or temporary accounts that taxpayers don’t have access to.” Millions of
Americans will be impacted by this lag in receival of stimulus money, and will have to file the
lost payments in their 2020 tax returns, again forfeiting the general purpose of the institution
of the stimulus bill before the new year. Citizens must look toward eclectic news articles to find
answers for their absence of aid, and those who do not have the luxury to have a smart phone to
google every issue they might have at their fingertips, sit in confusion and await answers from
tax companies such as TurboTax and H&R Block.22
Conclusion
With the unorganized approach to introducing any new and comprehensive relief bills,
the IRS, US Treasury, and government has been inconsistent in its responsibility to help the
American public in a time of dire need and was underprepared to assist the entire nation with
imperative stimulus funds. The government has not provided a sustainable, consistent, and ac-
cessible economic aid package even after nine months of this global pandemic. The IRS has
continued to use an inadequate and confusing system that does not match the demands of the
people during the coronavirus pandemic.
With the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives and now split Senate, law-
makers are having trouble compromising and creating a bill that will benefit everyone. This new
stimulus package is an insufficient band aid as people desperately await normal life and vaccine
distribution. Due to the gravity of the virus, there should be little hesitation. Every day, families
and businesses grow more desperate for financial assistance, and more people face negative
impacts to their health, safety, and finances. A large comprehensive relief bill is in the sights of
the Biden-Harris Administration, but America will remember its suffering experienced until
that point.
18 Dale Smith, “Stimulus Package: How the New Heroes Act Compares to the CARES Act from March.” CNET, accessed December
10, 2020, https://www.cnet.com/personal-finance/stimulus-package-how-the-new-heroes-act-compares-to-the-cares-act-from-
march/.
19 Katie Lobosco, “Don’t Expect a Second Stimulus Check This Year.” Cable News Network, November 30, 2020, https://www.cnn.
com/2020/11/30/politics/stimulus-checks-covid-relief-congress/index.html.
20 Katie Lobosco and Tami Luhby. “Here’s What’s in the Second Stimulus Package.” Cable News Network, accessed January 16, 2021.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/20/politics/second-covid-stimulus-package-details/index.html.
21 Tara Siegel Bernard, “Some People Are Already Experiencing Delays Getting Their Second Stimulus Payments.” The New York
Times, January 6, 2021, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/06/business/stimulus-check-delay.html.
22 Karin Price Mueller “Second Stimulus Check Update: Where’s My Check? What If It Doesn’t Come? Can I Track My Payment?”
nj.com, January 18, 2021. https://www.nj.com/coronavirus/2021/01/second-stimulus-check-update-wheres-my-check-what-if-it-
doesnt-come-can-i-track-my-payment.html.
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