After months of inaction, U.S. Congress approves $892 billion COVID-19
relief package
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[December 22, 2020]
By Richard Cowan and Andy Sullivan
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Congress on
Monday approved an $892 billion coronavirus aid package, throwing a
lifeline to the nation's pandemic-battered economy after months of
inaction, while also keeping the federal government funded.
President Donald Trump is expected to sign the package into law.
Following days of furious negotiation, both legislative chambers worked
deep into the night to pass the bill - worth about $2.3 trillion
including spending for the rest of the fiscal year - with the House of
Representatives first approving it and the Senate following suit several
hours later in a bipartisan 92-6 vote.
The virus relief bill includes $600 payments to most Americans as well
as additional payments to the millions of people thrown out of work
during the COVID-19 pandemic, just as a larger round of benefits is due
to expire on Saturday.
The stimulus package, the first congressionally approved aid since
April, comes as the pandemic is accelerating in the United States,
infecting more than 214,000 people every day and slowing the economic
recovery. More than 317,000 Americans have died.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat, said she supported the virus
relief bill even though it did not include the direct aid for state and
local governments that Democrats had sought. She said they would try for
it again after Democratic President-elect Joe Biden takes office on Jan.
20.
The bill, she said, "doesn't go all the way but it takes us down the
path."
Republican Representative Hal Rogers, who also supported the package,
said "it reflects a fair compromise."
At 5,593 pages, the wide-ranging bill that also spends $1.4 trillion on
an array of federal programs through the end of the fiscal year in
September, is likely to be the final major piece of legislation for the
116th Congress that expires on Jan. 3. Congress included a measure
continuing current levels of government spending for seven days,
ensuring no interruption to federal operations.
MCCONNELL CLAIMS VICTORY
It has a net cost of roughly $350 billion for coronavirus relief,
Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said, adding that more
than $500 billion in funding comes from unspent money Congress had
authorized.
Both Democrats and Republicans claimed victory but McConnell argued that
the final bill came close to what Democrats rejected months ago as
insufficient.
The measure ended up 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.
"Compare the shape of this major agreement with the shape of what I
proposed all the way back in late July. Yes, some fine details are
different," McConnell said in a statement after the vote. "There is no
doubt this new agreement contains input from our Democratic colleagues.
It is bipartisan. But these matters could have been settled long ago."
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U.S. Sen. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), walks from the
Senate floor as both chambers of Congress are aimed to pass the
coronavirus disease (COVID-19) package in a marathon session on
Capitol Hill Washington, D.C., U.S., December 21, 2020. REUTERS/Ken
Cedeno
A months-long impasse on relief that played in the background of the
U.S. presidential election was broken after a group of centrist
lawmakers from both parties put forward a proposal that served as a
framework for the final bill.
Even so, the bill was so unwieldy that it caused congressional
computers to malfunction. It includes a hodgepodge of tax breaks and
other proposals that failed to pass on their own, including two new
Smithsonian museums and limits on surprise medical billing.
[L1N2J10ZA]
The legislation also renews a small-business lending program by
about $284 billion and steers money to schools, airlines, transit
systems and vaccine distribution.
PUBLIC COMPANIES EXCLUDED
The small-business loan and grant program, known as the Paycheck
Protection Program, would exclude publicly traded companies from
eligibility.
Amid reports that the Trump Organization received past aid, the bill
contains disclosure requirements for the president, vice president,
heads of Cabinet departments, lawmakers and spouses and prohibits
those individuals from receiving loans in the future.
State and local governments, which are struggling to pay for the
distribution of newly approved COVID-19 vaccines, would receive
$8.75 billion from Washington, with $300 million of that targeted at
vaccinations in minority and high-risk populations.
The deal, worked out in a rare weekend session of Congress, omits
the thorniest sticking points, which included Republicans' desire
for a liability shield to protect businesses from coronavirus-related
lawsuits as well as Democrats' request for a large outlay of money
for cash-strapped state and local governments.
If signed into law, 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 that money played a critical role as
social-distancing measures shuttered wide swaths of the economy.
(Reporting by Richard Cowan and Andy Sullivan in Washington;
Additional reporting by Susan Heavey and Lisa Lambert in Washington;
Writing by James Oliphant; Editing by Scott Malone, Matthew Lewis
and Peter Cooney)
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