{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://dean.house.gov/2020/12/reps-dean-and-thompson-introduce-coronavirus-relief-fund-expansion-act", "Reps. Dean and Thompson Introduce Coronavirus Relief Fund Expansion Act", "2020-12-10", "2020", "2020-12", "Democrat", "House", "PA", "Madeleine Dean", "D000631", "dean.house.gov", "dean", "https://dean.house.gov/press-releases", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, DC\u2013 Today, Reps. Madeleine Dean and Glenn \u201cGT\u201d Thompson (PA-15) and introduced the Coronavirus Relief Fund Expansion Act, to extend the deadline to spend COVID-19 relief funds by one year to December 31, 2021. This will allow non-profit and emergency service organizations the ability to use funds to replace lost, delayed, or decreased revenues as a result of the global pandemic.\n\n\u201cEmergency services are hurting from the economic side effects of the pandemic. It\u2019s important that we extend the deadline for the Coronavirus Relief Fund (CRF) through December 31, 2021 and allow emergency services \u2013 like Volunteer Fire Departments \u2013 to access these relief funds.\u201d Rep. Dean said. \u201cIt\u2019s not only the right thing to do, it\u2019s economically smart and allows our emergency services to continue to serve the people.\u201d\n\nVolunteer fire departments rely heavily on fundraising activities to support their mission. Due to COVID-19, most of these organizations were forced to cancel in-person community events, which has resulted in significant losses.\n\n\u201cThe economic impact of COVID-19 has been hardest on organizations that already operate on razor thin margins,\u201d Rep. Thompson said. \"Congress created a relief fund, which has yet to be exhausted. As a volunteer firefighter, I know that we must act immediately to provide more flexibility and extend these deadlines, otherwise volunteer organizations and non-profits will be left out in the cold.\u201d", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-06-28T00:42:23Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://dean.house.gov/2020/12/reps-dean-and-thompson-introduce-coronavirus-relief-fund-expansion-act"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.6789461951702833, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}