This is a link to the complete text etc. of the Families First Coronavirus Response Act.
https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/6201
I have spent about an hour so far and it looks as confusing as any usual government document. It seems this is likely a “trickle-down” process as the fed is leaving it up to the states to figure out how to administer the processes of relief. I can see vast loopholes in the bill as there seems to be very little oversight by law and that is delegated to various federal and state agencies. Granted it is a big bill and will likely require revisiting by lawmakers over the next few months. In fact, I observed that the benefits are preparing for up to 2 years for them to all be in effect as provided with no other amendments I know I was hoping for a far easier set of provisions that will allow “any” regular citizen to get questions answered and to apply for benefits as proposed by this bill. For now, it seems the regular states benefit regulations are in effect and in my opinion they need to be brought up to reflect the intent of the federal bill. That is not being addressed NOW! Our state legislators, governor and Texas WorkForce are not up this task with the regulations currently in place. To that end, the state requires any applicant for unemployment, SNAP benefits, and Medicaid: to be completely destitute: ie less than $2000 to their name in a bank and self-employed folks that work as contractors or as sole proprietors of a small business that doesn’t pay into the states unemployment insurance program are not eligible for benefits even though they are closed and can not work due to state and federal guidelines. I personally have family members that are in this situation. Here in Texas, we need our state government to at least temporarily alter these regulations in order to protect the families and jobs of these citizens. The state regulations MUST reflect the content and intent of the federal regulations and provisions of this bill, in order for that to occur. The state government needs to act NOW!