Congressional leaders said Sunday that they reached a deal on a nearly $900 billion COVID-19 relief package that includes individual checks, loans to small businesses and benefits to the unemployed struggling with the fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic, ending months of gridlock in negotiations.
“Moments ago, the four leaders of the Senate and the House finalized an agreement. It will be another major rescue package for the American people,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., announced on the Senate floor Sunday afternoon.
McConnell, hailing the “bipartisan breakthrough,” said the bill’s text must be finalized and, barring any “last-minute obstacles,” pass the House and Senate before President Donald Trump can sign it into law. Both chambers are expected to debate and vote on the package Monday.
The measure will be tied to a $1.4 trillion must-pass spending bill that will fund federal agencies and programs through Sept. 30, the end of the fiscal year.
Averting a partial government shutdown deadline, Congress passed a one-day extension of government funding Sunday evening, and Trump signed it into law, giving lawmakers one more day to review the deal. The deal is likely to pass the House and Senate as top leaders on both sides of the aisle argued for its passage.
The agreement ends months of wrangling between Republicans and Democrats over the type and size of legislation to help the nation weather a pandemic that has killed more than 317,000 Americans, infected millions and shuttered scores of businesses.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said on the Senate floor the deal was “far from perfect” but will deliver “emergency relief” to Americans. He vowed it would not be the “last word” on COVID-19 stimulus and said he would push for another bill once President-elect Joe Biden took office.
Democrats declared victory in keeping top Republican priorities like COVID-19 liability protections for schools and businesses out of the package, though they also were unable to secure one of their top priorities of aid for state and local governments. President-elect Joe Biden has called the package “a good start,” and Democrats are hopeful that priorities not fully addressed in the relief package will get an extra boost when the new president moves into the White House.
Schumer told reporters at a Sunday evening press conference he hoped for a “more robust” bill on state and local funding and other provisions once Biden was sworn into office, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., predicted they would have an “easier” time negotiating a bill than they did with a Republican-controlled Senate and Trump in the White House.
The measure, which Trump is likely to sign, would establish a temporary $300-per-week supplemental jobless benefit (less than the $600 provided under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act passed in March) for the next 10 weeks and $600 direct payments to most Americans (less than the $1,200 checks approved in the spring), with $600 payments included for dependents.
– Courtesy USA Today