{"id":13122,"date":"2021-03-16T17:00:27","date_gmt":"2021-03-16T17:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hsli.org\/?p=13122"},"modified":"2021-03-16T17:00:27","modified_gmt":"2021-03-16T17:00:27","slug":"legislative-news-03-16-2021","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hsli.org\/newsletter\/legislative-news-03-16-2021\/","title":{"rendered":"Legislative News, 03\/16\/2021"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"x_xmsonormal\"><b>Federal news<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"x_xmsonormal\"><i>Bill passed<\/i><\/p>\n<p class=\"x_xmsonormal\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.congress.gov\/bill\/117th-congress\/house-bill\/1319\">H.R.1319 &#8212; American Rescue Plan Act of 2021<\/a> [became Public Law No. 117-2 on 3\/11\/2021]<\/p>\n<p class=\"x_xmsonormal\">Specifically, the bill provides funding for [<i>see full list of provisions at the above link<\/i>]<\/p>\n<ul type=\"disc\">\n<li class=\"x_xmsolistparagraph\">schools and institutions of higher education;<\/li>\n<li class=\"x_xmsolistparagraph\">COVID-19 vaccinations, testing, treatment, and prevention;<\/li>\n<li class=\"x_xmsolistparagraph\">mental health and substance-use disorder services;<\/li>\n<li class=\"x_xmsolistparagraph\">programs for health care workers, transportation workers, federal employees, veterans, and other targeted populations;<\/li>\n<li class=\"x_xmsolistparagraph\">scientific research and development;<\/li>\n<li class=\"x_xmsolistparagraph\">state, territorial, and tribal capital projects that enable work, education, and health monitoring in response to COVID-19; and<\/li>\n<li class=\"x_xmsolistparagraph\">health care providers in rural areas.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"x_xmsonormal\">The bill also includes provisions that<\/p>\n<ul type=\"disc\">\n<li class=\"x_xmsolistparagraph\">provide premium assistance for certain health insurance coverage; and<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul type=\"disc\">\n<li class=\"x_xmsolistparagraph\">require coverage, without cost-sharing, of COVID-19 vaccines and treatment under Medicaid and the Children&#8217;s Health Insurance Program (CHIP).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"x_xmsonormal\"><a href=\"https:\/\/khn.org\/news\/article\/aca-subsidies-pandemic-aid-package-includes-relief-from-high-premiums\/\">Pandemic Aid Package Includes Relief From High Premiums<\/a> [Kaiser Health News, 3\/9\/21]<\/p>\n<p class=\"x_xmsonormal\">The just-passed COVID relief bill has &#8220;strengthen[ed] the Affordable Care Act with some of the most significant changes to insurance affordability in more than a decade.&#8221; The temporary changes pave the way for the possibility of a permanent revision of the ACA.<\/p>\n<p class=\"x_xmsonormal\">KHN has more on how the new law affects health in their podcast episode, <a href=\"https:\/\/khn.org\/news\/article\/podcast-khn-what-the-health-187-expanding-the-aca-in-an-unpredicted-way-march-11-2021\/\">Expanding the ACA in an Unpredicted Way<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"x_xmsonormal\"><a href=\"https:\/\/americanlibrariesmagazine.org\/blogs\/the-scoop\/what-american-rescue-plan-act-means-for-libraries\/\">What the American Rescue Plan Act Means for Libraries<\/a> [American Libraries, 3\/12\/21]<\/p>\n<p class=\"x_xmsonormal\">&#8220;Act provides historic levels of new funding for IMLS, E-Rate, and other programs.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"x_xmsonormal\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollcall.com\/2021\/03\/11\/hhs-data-highlights-negative-effects-of-work-requirements\/\">HHS data highlights negative effects of work requirements<\/a> [Roll Call, 3\/11\/21]<\/p>\n<p class=\"x_xmsonormal\">&#8220;&#8230;efforts by states to seek work requirements or capped funding result in reduced enrollment and access to care.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>State news<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Our Illinois legislators are back at work, and there are many bills and amendments being proposed right now.\u00a0 They are looking at everything from amending the Election Code to creating a Vegetable Garden Protection Act. For a listing and a summary, visit <a href=\"https:\/\/legiscan.com\/IL\/legislation\">https:\/\/legiscan.com\/IL\/legislation<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>A couple of recent articles from the State Journal-Register:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sj-r.com\/story\/news\/politics\/government\/2021\/03\/13\/lawmakers-discuss-new-crisis-born-covid-19-pandemic\/4680539001\/\">Illinois lawmakers look to address state&#8217;s mental health care needs<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sj-r.com\/story\/news\/2021\/02\/10\/illinois-house-adopts-new-covid-19-rules-republican-chris-welch\/6707342002\/\">Illinois House adopts new rules under Welch<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Federal news Bill passed H.R.1319 &#8212; American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 [became Public Law No. 117-2 on 3\/11\/2021] Specifically, the bill provides funding for [see full list of provisions at the above link] schools and institutions of higher education; COVID-19 vaccinations, testing, treatment, and prevention; mental health and substance-use disorder services; programs for health&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-legislation"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hsli.org\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13122","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hsli.org\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hsli.org\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hsli.org\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hsli.org\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13122"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.hsli.org\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13122\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hsli.org\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hsli.org\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hsli.org\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}