Washington, D.C – Representative Dina Titus of Nevada’s First Congressional District released the following statement ahead of her vote to pass the American Rescue Plan, H.R. 1319:

“People in Las Vegas are struggling right now to put food on the table and keep a roof over their heads,” said Congresswoman Titus (NV-1). “Sadly, due to the decline in travel and tourism, we have the highest unemployment rate of any large metro area in the country. 

“Each morning I wake up and think about what I can do for Southern Nevadans who are suffering through no fault of their own. I am proud to tell them that help is on the way. 

“The American Rescue Plan will save lives by accelerating vaccine distribution. It will provide meaningful direct payments to most Americans and increase rent and food assistance. It will aid struggling small businesses, keep frontline workers on the payroll, and help students safely return to the classroom. 

“It will bring back jobs and even includes a provision I pushed to specifically help communities that are suffering from a loss of travel and tourism. The American Rescue Plan will allow our resilient city to recover from this crisis and come back stronger than ever before.”

The American Rescue Plan will:

• Put Vaccines in Arms: The plan will mount a national vaccination program that includes setting up community vaccination sites nationwide. It will also take complementary measures to combat the virus, including scaling up testing and tracing, addressing shortages of personal protective equipment and other critical supplies, investing in high-quality treatments and addressing health care disparities.  
• Put Children Safely Back in School: The plan will make a nearly $130 billion investment in school re-opening and making up for lost time in the classroom. These funds can be used for such things as reducing class sizes, modifying spaces so that students and teachers can socially distance, improving ventilation, implementing more mitigation measures, providing personal protective equipment, and providing summer school or other support for students that help make up lost learning time this year. The plan also provides resources for higher education, Head Start and child care facilities.
• Put Money in People’s Pockets: The plan finishes the job on the President’s promise to provide $2,000 in direct assistance to households across America with checks of $1,400 per person, following the $600 down payment enacted in December. The plan will also provide direct housing assistance, nutrition assistance for 40 million Americans, expand access to safe and reliable child care and affordable health care, extend and expand Unemployment Insurance so that 19 million American workers can pay their bills and supporting 27 million children with an expanded Child Tax Credit and 15 million low-wage workers through the Earned Income Tax Credit. It will give 27 million workers a raise and lift one million out of poverty by raising the federal minimum wage.
• Put People Back In Jobs: The plan will provide crucial support for the hardest-hit small businesses, especially those owned by entrepreneurs from racial and ethnic backgrounds that have experienced systemic discrimination, with EIDL grants, expanded PPP eligibility and more. The plan also provides crucial resources to protect the jobs of first responders, frontline public health workers, teachers, transit workers and other essential workers that all Americans depend on.