U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), a senior member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, and U.S. Senator Maggie Hassan (D-NH) issued the following statements in response to new estimates from the non-partisan Congressional Research Service (CRS) predicting that New Hampshire is expected to receive approximately $2 billion across a variety of sectors from new federal COVID-19 relief included in government funding legislation that was signed into law Sunday night, which Shaheen and Hassan helped negotiate. These estimates do not include all sectors of New Hampshire’s economy that will receive federal relief, which will become available in the days and weeks ahead.

The relief legislation also includes language, sponsored by Hassan and supported by Shaheen, extending the period during which state and local governments may use Coronavirus Relief Fund (CRF) aid, allocated under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act through December 31, 2021.

“The CARES Act funding we fought to deliver to New Hampshire was crucial for mitigating the economic impact of COVID-19 in our communities for small businesses, health care providers and many more. But we knew more help would be necessary, which is why bipartisan talks restarted and prevailed, and another set of relief will soon be out the door,” said Senator Shaheen. These estimates are helpful to see what the distribution of funding will look like for New Hampshire so we can make plans now on where to start in the next COVID assistance package that Congress will tackle in the new year. This emergency relief will help Granite Staters and Americans over the next few months, but to ensure our communities have the long-term help necessary to recover and rebuild from this economic crisis, further aid will be needed. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle and from both chambers of Congress came together to deliver this last package – next month we will get to work to do that again.”

“This bipartisan package will bring critically needed and overdue relief to families, small businesses, and schools in every corner of New Hampshire – and it will bring more federal dollars to our state to help contain this pandemic,” Senator Hassan said. “I am also particularly glad that our state is estimated to receive more than $259 million for education needs, which is a priority I spearheaded during bipartisan negotiations. This substantial federal funding to New Hampshire will provide necessary support to help students, parents, and teachers with in-person and remote learning. While more relief will be needed in the coming months in order to save lives and help our economy recover, the federal funding that Senator Shaheen and I secured will go a long way to help families pay their bills and put food on the table. I will also continue pushing for additional resources to help our state and country recover from this unprecedented public health and economic crisis.”

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