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AMSTERDAM, NY—Congressman Paul D. Tonko announced this afternoon that The Heroes Act—new COVID-19 crisis relief legislation that has now been introduced in the House—delivers an estimated $1.3 billion in crisis-response aid to New York’s Capital Region and a combined $49.5 billion to New York State overall. Under the bill:·    

• Local governments in Albany County receive a combined $341.5 million in FY2020 and $170.7 million in FY2021; TOTAL: $512.29 million
• Local governments in Schenectady County receive a combined $201.3 million in FY2020 and $100.6 million in FY 2021; TOTAL: $302.08 million
• Local governments in Montgomery County receive a combined $30.7 million in FY2020 and $15.3 million in FY 2021; TOTAL: $46.19 million
• Local governments in Rensselaer County receive a combined $164.2 million in FY2020 and $82.1 million in FY 2021; TOTAL: $246.39 million
• Local governments in Saratoga County receive a combined $134.5 million in FY2020 and $67.2 million in FY 2021; TOTAL: $201.85 million

“Our bill takes action not just to combat the raging COVID-19 health crisis, it also delivers vital aid directly to Capital Region families and communities, ensuring our state and local officials can continue to keep local firefighters, teachers, nurses and other essential workers on the job at this critical time,” said Tonko. “These folks have kept our communities going under challenging circumstances, and they need to know we have their backs. Our legislation delivers that assurance and puts our communities on a more solid footing to weather this storm.”

The Heroes Act also includes a number of vital provisions to help New York families and communities including:

1. Provides strong support for our heroes by establishing a $200 billion Heroes’ fund to ensure that essential workers across the country receive hazard pay.  
2. Commits another $75 billion for the testing, tracing and treatment we need in order to have a science-based path to safely reopen our country and helping ensure that every American can access free coronavirus treatment.
3. Puts money in the pockets of workers with a second round of direct payments to families up to $6,000 per household, new payroll protection measures to keep 60 million workers connected with their jobs and extending weekly $600 federal unemployment payments through next January.
4. Supports small businesses by strengthening the Payroll Protection Program to ensure that it reaches underserved communities, nonprofits of all sizes and types and responds flexibly to small businesses by providing $10 billion for COVID-19 emergency grants through the Economic Injury Disaster Loan program.
5. Investing billions in New York State through primary and higher education, community health centers, emergency services, hospitals and other health providers, Medicaid services, highway infrastructure, biomedical research and much more.
6. Eliminates the harmful State and Local Tax (SALT) deduction limitation for Tax Years 2020 and 2021

Tonko added, “There’s work to be done here to deliver our smart and timely crisis aid package to the American people. Just as we did before with the CARES Act, this will take a bipartisan effort and the President’s signature to make it happen. But if both the House and Senate bring that same spirit of unity and resilience to our work that the American people have shown throughout this crisis, The Heroes Act will be signed into law quickly and its urgent assistance will help prevent the even greater harms and hardship that are threatening to overtake us."

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