Build Back Better and the American Rescue Plan already solved the aff better

But the ARP went beyond just the short-term crisis. Most notably, the ARP permanently increased both the CTC and the EITC for people on the island. Puerto Rican families were made permanently eligible for normal CTC benefits (though not advanced monthly payments), a change that will significantly boost the incomes of all families with children. And while residents of Puerto Rico are not yet eligible for federal EITC benefits, the ARP set aside $600 million per year to subsidize the island’s local EITC. Those changes marked a positive, humane break from how the federal government traditionally treated Puerto Rico. But it turns out that was just the beginning of change: The pending Build Back Better (BBB) Act sews up the two most gaping holes in the island’s federal safety net, thereby tremendously improving the lives of impoverished residents. First, starting in 2024, the BBB Act would extend SSI benefits to residents of Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, and the Virgin Islands. This change will single-handedly restore more than 40 percent of Puerto Rican residents’ foregone federal safety net benefits, thereby reducing both the frequency and depth of poverty on the island. Second, the BBB Act would boost Medicaid funding for Puerto Rico and the other territories. Medicaid is a joint federal-state program, with the federal government providing a higher share of funding in low-income states than in high-income states. Puerto Rico, which has lower per-capita income than any state in the country, should therefore receive an exceptionally high rate of funding. Instead, Medicaid’s previous funding scheme set the federal share for Puerto Rico and other territories at 55 percent—a lower rate than in 30 mainland states—while also capping the maximum amount of funds through a fixed block grant. As a result, the federal government provided just 15 percent of the island’s Medicaid funding between 2012 and 2019. The BBB Act would raise the funding caps and increase the federal government’s statutory share of Medicaid funding to 76 percent in 2022 and 83 percent starting in 2023. The new rates would provide fairer funding and better reflect Puerto Rico’s status as a low-income area.