Biden’s American Rescue Plan is working for Arizona

Over the last year-and-a-half, the people of Arizona have faced some truly enormous challenges. From a pandemic that presented the United States government with a crisis the likes of which we haven’t seen in our lifetimes, to historic droughts, to a former president encouraging a violent insurrection — some could say it has felt like 10 years.

Thankfully, the political landscape has changed with the elections of U.S. Sens. Mark Kelly  and Kyrsten Sinema, and President Joe Biden. Once in office, the three of them went right to work putting our priorities front and center by passing a bold rescue package to get Arizona past the pandemic. 

Even a former elected Republican official like myself has to admit that they have been doing an incredible job at getting things done by passing the American Rescue Plan. 

Senator Kelly, Senator Sinema, and President Biden have provided much needed relief for small businesses and working families — including an additional $7.25 billion for the Paycheck Protection Program, $28.6 billion for the Restaurant Revitalization Fund and $100 million for organizations supporting efforts to improve access to COVID-19 pandemic assistance programs and resources. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. 

They have also provided a crucial tax cut for those with children, which enables them to spend more of their hard-earned money providing for their families. Since the passage of the American Rescue Plan, more than 790,000 Arizona families are already receiving Child Tax Credit checks — that’s more than 1.3 million Arizona children. If you’re an eligible family, you can sign up for monthly payments at ChildTaxCredit.gov. I highly recommend that families here in Arizona take advantage of this major tax cut. 

And thanks to Senator Kelly, Senator Sinema, and President Biden, vaccines are available for every Arizonan over the age of 16. Vaccines are the surest way to get us past the pandemic, and I hope everyone gets them. 

This pandemic has proved to us all that we have a responsibility to look out for each other in order to get through a crisis like this, and I for one am thankful that Arizona has the good fortune of leaders like Senator Sinema, Senator Kelly and President Biden looking out for us and our best interests.