Congress overwhelmingly voted Monday to pass a massive Covid-19 relief package and government funding bill, its second effort this year to bring much-needed aid to Americans struggling during the pandemic.
The outcome had been all but assured after congressional leaders struck a deal late Sunday on a nearly $900 billion package, which includes a new round of stimulus checks, an extension of unemployment benefits and more money for vaccines and education.
The legislation easily passed in the House — 359 to 53 — before breezing through the Senate shortly before midnight in a 92-6 vote.
The agreement includes stimulus checks of up to $600 per person for individuals earning $75,000 per year and married couples who earn up to $150,000, with $600 more for each dependent under 18 living in the same household.
It would also extend unemployment insurance and federal unemployment insurance — $300 a week — and provide over $284 billion more in loans for businesses struggling to pay rent and workers, $69 billion for testing and vaccine distribution and $82 billion for colleges and schools.
President Donald Trump is expected to sign the bill in the coming days. However, because the 5,600-page bill is one of the largest and government funding runs out at midnight, lawmakers attached a separate bill to avoid a government shutdown for seven days.
The checks would be smaller than the $1,200 in direct payments that people received when Congress passed a massive $2 trillion stimulus package, called the CARES Act, in March to soften the economic blow of the pandemic for workers and businesses. The enhanced unemployment benefits are also less than the $600 a week provided in that bill, which was the largest economic relief package in modern U.S. history.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told CNBC on Monday that Americans will begin getting direct payments by "the beginning of next week."
Lawmakers had been at loggerheads over a second relief package for months as Covid-19 case and death numbers continued to rise during the holiday season, and many Americans and small-business owners are in dire financial straits. A recent study by the Center on Poverty and Social Policy at Columbia University, for example, found that if direct unemployment aid is not extended, 5 million more people will enter poverty in January.
The parties worked out a deal that includes many of their top priorities. For Democrats, those included an extension of the moratorium on evictions and targeted funding for underrepresented groups, such as Native American and other minority communities. House Republicans, meanwhile, pointed to limits on benefits for undocumented immigrants and food stamp payments as wins.
The legislation does not include hundreds of billions of dollars for states and localities for Medicare or relief for teachers and first responders who have come under financial distress during the pandemic. Republicans pushed for liability protection from Covid-19-related lawsuits for businesses, universities and health care centers, but that was also left out.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., criticized Republicans on the Senate floor ahead of the vote Monday, saying more aid is needed.
"This bill cannot and will not be the final word upon congressional relief from the coronavirus pandemic," he said. "This is an emergency survival package, and when we come back in January, our No. 1 job will be to fill in the gaps left by the bill and get the economy moving with strong federal input."
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December 22, 2020 at 05:57AM
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