Senior negotiators on Capitol Hill struck a deal Sunday on a nearly $ 1 trillion support package to counter the economic effects of COVID-19, ultimately providing aid to businesses and individuals and allocating money for the distribution of long-awaited vaccines.
The deal, announced by leaders in the Senate, would establish an additional temporary unemployment benefit of $ 300 a week and direct stimulus payments of $ 600 to most Americans, as well as a new round of subsidies for hard-hit businesses. money for schools, health care providers and renters facing eviction.
The lower house is expected to vote on the bill on Monday, said a spokeswoman for the Democratic Majority Leader in the House, Steny Hoyer. The House of Representatives would pass an interim spending bill for one day Sunday at midnight to avoid a government shutdown. The Senate will likely vote on Monday as well. Legislators are eager to leave Washington and finish their jobs in a tumultuous year.
“There will be another large bailout package for the American people,” said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, GOP, announcing agreement on an aid bill that would total nearly $ 900 billion. “It’s full of specific policies to help Americans in trouble who have waited too long.”
The final agreement is the largest spending initiative to date. It combines COVID-19 aid with a $ 1.4 trillion funding plan for the entire government and multiple additional measures on taxes, health and education.
Its approval is approaching as coronavirus cases and deaths grow and evidence accumulates that the economy is in trouble.
Last-minute decisions would limit the additional $ 300 a week unemployment benefit – equal to half of the additional federal unemployment benefit provided in March under the CARES Act – to 10 weeks instead of 16 weeks as before. The direct stimulus payment of $ 600 to most people is also half of what was paid in March, subject to the same income level limits in which the individual payment for an individual begins to phase out for people who earn $ 75,000 annually or more.
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