UNITE Act of 2020

Undertaking National Initiatives to Tackle Epidemic Act of 2020 or the UNITE Act of 2020

This bill responds to the COVID-19 (i.e., coronavirus disease 2019) public health emergency by increasing volunteer opportunities within AmeriCorps and employment opportunities at the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and requiring the re-enrollment of Peace Corps volunteers whose service ended involuntarily on March 15, 2020, or earlier for volunteers who were serving in China or Mongolia.

Among other things, the bill

• reauthorizes through FY2022 Americorps programs;
• increases recruitment levels of its volunteers to 500,000 in FY2020-FY2022;
• sets the minimum compensation for Americorps volunteers, beginning in FY2020, at 200% of the poverty line applicable to a family of one;
• increases the ceiling on grant amounts to such volunteers from $18,000 to $25,000;
• increases the ceiling on the grant amount maximum limit from to not more than $19,500 to $30,000 per full-time equivalent position if necessary to meet the compelling needs of a particular program;
• requires FEMA to appoint, administer, and expedite the training of an additional 62,000 Cadre of On-Call Response/Recovery Employees above the level of such employees in FY2019 to address the COVID-19 emergency;
• .authorizes federal agencies to provide assistance essential to meeting immediate threats to life and property resulting from a major disaster to provide for temporary or supplementary facilities for official government polling places; and
• authorizes the President to pay a state, tribal, or local government in which a major disaster has been declared stipends for temporary workers conducting nonpartisan official election poll worker services.

Written by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service. All summary versions on Congress.gov