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WASHINGTON: The U.S. Congress approved a $ 892 billion coronavirus aid package on Monday (December 21), putting a lifeline on the pandemic-stricken nation’s economy after months of inaction, while keeping the federal government funded for another year.
President Donald Trump is expected to sign the package soon and sign it into law.
After days of furious negotiations, both houses worked late into the night to pass the massive bill, with the House of Representatives first passing it and the Senate following suit several hours later in bipartisan votes.
The virus relief bill includes payments of $ 600 to most Americans, as well as additional payments to the millions of people who were left without work during the COVID-19 pandemic, just as a larger round of benefits expire on Saturday.
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House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat, said she supported the virus relief bill even though it did not include the direct help for state and local governments that Democrats had requested. He said they would try again next year after Democratic President-elect Joe Biden takes office.
The bill, he said, “doesn’t go all the way, but it takes us down the road.”
Republican Rep. Hal Rogers, who also supported the package, said it “reflects a fair compromise.”
At 5,593 pages, the sprawling bill that also spends $ 1.4 trillion on a variety of federal programs through next September is likely the last big bill for the 116th Congress to expire on January 3. Congress included a rolling measure of current public spending levels for seven days, ensuring that federal operations are not disrupted.
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It has a net cost of about $ 350 billion for coronavirus relief, said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, adding that more than $ 500 billion in funding comes from unspent money than the Congress had authorized.
The stimulus package, the first aid approved by Congress since April, comes as the pandemic accelerates in the United States, infecting more than 214,000 people every day and slowing the economic recovery. More than 317,000 Americans have died.
The legislation also expands a small business loan program by about $ 284 billion and directs the money to schools, airlines, transit systems and vaccine distribution.
The small business loan and grant program, known as the Paycheck Protection Program, would exclude publicly traded businesses from eligibility.
Amid reports that the Trump Organization has received help in the past, the bill contains disclosure requirements for the president, vice president, cabinet department heads, lawmakers, and spouses and prohibits those individuals from receiving loans in the future.
State and local governments, struggling to pay for the distribution of newly approved COVID-19 vaccines, would receive $ 8.75 billion from Washington, of which $ 300 million will go to vaccines in high-risk and minority populations. .
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WORN ADHESIVE POINTS
The deal, drawn up in a rare weekend session of Congress, omits the thorniest points, which included Republicans’ desire for an liability shield to protect companies from coronavirus-related lawsuits, as well as the request. of the Democrats of a large cash outlay. -State and local governments trapped.
McConnell, interviewed by Fox News, vowed to renew his push for corporate lawsuit protections in any coronavirus relief bill that the incoming Biden administration pursues in early 2021.
The measure is far less than the $ 3 trillion called for in a bill that passed the Democratic-controlled House in May, which the Republican-controlled Senate ignored.
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Biden has urged Congress to consider more encouragement for him to sign the law when he takes office on January 20. “My message to all who are struggling at this time, help is on the way,” he said in a statement.
The bill would be the second-largest stimulus package in U.S. history, behind the roughly $ 2 trillion aid bill passed in March. Experts said money played a critical role as social distancing measures shut down wide swaths of the economy.
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