Vaccine centers, new stimulus checks included in Biden plan

President-elect Joe Biden is proposing a $1.9 trillion plan to expand coronavirus vaccinations, help individuals and jump-start ecomy. plan, which would require congressional approval, is packed with proposals on health care, education, labor and cybersecurity. Here's a look at what's in it:

CONTAINING VIRUS

— A $20 billion national program would establish community vaccination centers across U.S. and send mobile units to remote communities. Medicaid patients would have ir costs covered by federal government, and administration says it will take steps to ensure all people in U.S. can receive vaccine for free, regardless of ir immigration status.

— An additional $50 billion would expand testing efforts and help schools and governments implement routine testing. Or efforts would focus on developing better treatments for COVID-19 and improving efforts to identify and track new strains of virus.

INDIVIDUALS AND WORKERS

— Stimulus checks of $1,400 per person in addition to $600 checks Congress approved in December. By bringing payments to $2,000 — an amount Democrats previously called for — administration says it will help families meet basic needs and support local businesses.

— A temporary boost in unemployment benefits and a moratorium on evictions and foreclosures would be extended through September.

— federal minimum w would be raised to $15 per hour from current rate of $7.25 per hour.

— An emergency measure requiring employers to provide paid sick leave would be reinstated. administration is urging Congress to keep requirement through Sept. 30 and expand it to federal employees.

— child care tax credit would be expanded for a year, to cover half cost of child care up to $4,000 for one child and $8,000 for two or more for families making less than $125,000 a year. Families making between $125,000 and $400,000 would get a partial credit.

— $15 billion in federal grants to help states subsidize child care for low-income families, along with a $25 billion fund to help child care centers in danger of closing.

SCHOOLS

— $130 billion for K-12 schools to help m reopen safely. money is meant to help reach Biden's goal of having a majority of nation's K-8 schools open within his first 100 days in White House. Schools could use funding to cover a variety of costs, including purchase of masks and or protective equipment, upgrades to ventilation systems and staffing for school nurses. Schools would be expected to use funding to help students who fell behind on academics during pandemic, and on efforts to meet students' mental health needs. A portion of funding would go to education equity grants to help with challenges caused by pandemic.

— Public colleges and universities would get $35 billion to cover pandemic-related expenses and to steer funding to students as emergency grants. An additional $5 billion would go to goverrs to support programs helping students who were hit hardest by pandemic.

SMALL BUSINESS

— $15 billion in grants to more than 1 million small businesses that have been hit hard by pandemic, as well as or assistance.

STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT

— $350 billion in emergency funding for state, local and territorial governments to help front-line workers.

— $20 billion in aid to public transit ncies.

CYBERSECURITY

— $9 billion to modernize information techlogy systems at federal ncies, motivated by recent cybersecurity attacks that penetrated multiple ncies.

— $690 million to boost federal cybersecurity monitoring efforts and $200 million to hire hundreds of new cybersecurity experts.

(Im Credit: AP)