Newsman: The United States Congress passed the news covid-19 relief package tonight rushing on senate floor. Congress overwhelmingly voted to pass relief package and a government funding bill as its second effort this year to bring much-needed aid to Americans struggling during the pandemic. Now this bill will be sent to the white house for the President to sign it into the law. President Donald Trump is expected to sign the bill in the coming days.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other top Democrats said the recovery bill would be simply a down-payment on a larger package they hope to pass when President-elect Joe Biden takes office in January.
Though this news Covid-19 relief package is far less than the deal was presented by the Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin in months ago, Democrats says it was much needed. This temporary relief package will save millions of Americans family for now.
Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin told news media that Americans will begin receiving direct payments by “the beginning of next week.”
The long-delayed measure, which included $1.4 trillion to fund the government through next September, ultimately passed both chambers with overwhelming bipartisan majorities: 359-53 in the House and 92-6 in the Senate shortly before midnight.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other top Democrats said the recovery bill would be simply a down-payment on a larger package they hope to pass when President-elect Joe Biden takes office in January.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., criticized Republicans on the Senate floor earlier Monday ahead of the vote, saying more pandemic-related 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 number one job will be to fill in the gaps left by the bill and get the economy moving with strong federal input.”
“None of us think this legislation is perfect, but a big bipartisan majority of us recognize the incredible amount of good it will do when we send it to the president’s desk,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said. “The American people have waited long enough.”
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, poverty rates will rise by 5 million people in January.
Lawmakers of both parties acknowledged that the package was far from perfect, with Democrats arguing that it fell short in key areas, such as aid to state and local governments, and Republicans lamenting that it does not provide a liability shield for schools and businesses.
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 agreement includes stimulus checks of up to $600 per person for individuals earning $75,000 per year and married couples who earned up to $150,000, with an additional $600 for each dependent under 18 living in the same household.
It also extends unemployment insurance and federal unemployment insurance — $300 per week —and over $284 billion more in loans for businesses struggling to pay rent and workers, $69 billion in testing and vaccine distribution funds and $82 billion in funding for colleges and schools.
The checks are smaller than the $1,200 in direct payments households received when Congress passed a massive $2 trillion stimulus package, called the CARES Act, in March to soften the economic blow of the coronavirus pandemic for American workers and businesses. The enhanced unemployment benefits are also less than the $600 provided in that bill, which was the largest economic relief package in modern U.S. history.
However, lawmakers attached a separate bill to avoid a government shutdown for seven days because the government funding runs out at midnight.
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