WASHINGTON – The House passed a $ 1.9 trillion pandemic relief package early Saturday, 219-212, which includes $ 1,400 checks for most Americans and billions of dollars for schools, state and local governments, and businesses.
Republicans are overwhelmingly against the bill, expressing concern that the spending is much more than necessary and is intended to advance policy priorities beyond helping Americans get through the pandemic. Democrats and President Joe Biden object that a robust aid package is needed to prevent a long and painful recovery from the pandemic.
The Democrats’ goal is to approve COVID-19 aid in mid-March, when additional unemployment support and other pandemic aid ends. The Senate, controlled by the Democrats with a tie from the vice president, will consider the bill next.
A look at some of the highlights of the legislation:
MORE CHECKS
The law provides for a rebate of $ 1,400 for a single taxpayer, or $ 2,800 for a married couple filing jointly, plus $ 1,400 per dependent. Individuals who earn up to $ 75,000 will receive the full amount, as will married couples with incomes up to $ 150,000.
The size of the check would shrink for those earning a little more, with a hard cut-off of $ 100,000 for individuals and $ 200,000 for married couples.
Some Republicans want to lower the size of the rebate, as well as the pool of eligible Americans, but Biden has pushed for $ 1,400 checks, saying “that’s what the American people were promised.” The new round of checks is estimated to cost the government $ 422 billion.
GREATER TAX BREAK FOR HOUSEHOLDS WITH CHILDREN
Under current law, most taxpayers can reduce their federal income taxes by up to $ 2,000 per child. The package going through Parliament would increase the tax break to $ 3,000 for every child ages 6 to 17 and $ 3,600 for every child under 6 years old.
The law also requires payments to be made monthly rather than all at once. If the Minister of Finance determines that this is not feasible, the payments should be made as often as possible.
Also, no matter how little they earn in a year, even a few hundred dollars, families would get all the credit, leading to criticism that the changes act as a barrier to work. Add to that the $ 1,400 checks per person and other items in the proposal, and the legislation would cut the number of children living in poverty by more than half, according to an analysis by the Center for Poverty and Social Policy at Columbia University.
SUPPORT TO STATES AND CITIES
The legislation would send $ 350 billion to state and local governments and tribal governments. While Republicans in Congress have largely objected to this initiative, Biden’s push has some GOP support among governors and mayors.
Many communities have been hit on their tax bases because millions of people have lost their jobs and because people stay at home and avoid restaurants and shops to avoid getting COVID-19. Spending has also increased in many areas as they work to treat the sick and ramp up vaccinations.
But the impact varies from state to state and city to city. Critics say the funding is off target and far more than it needs to be, with billions of dollars allocated last spring to unspent states and communities.
HELP TO SCHOOLS
The bill calls for $ 130 billion in additional aid to schools for kindergarten through 12th grade students. The money would be used to downsize and adapt classrooms to increase social distance, install ventilation systems and purchase personal protective equipment. The money could also be used to hire more nurses and counselors and provide summer school.
Spending on colleges and universities would be increased by $ 40 billion, with the money being used to fund an institution’s pandemic-related expenses and provide emergency aid to students to cover expenses such as food and housing and computer equipment.
SUPPORT FOR BUSINESSES
The bill provides for another round of relief for airlines and eligible contractors, $ 15 billion, as long as they forgo employee leave or pay cuts through September. It is the third round of support for airlines.
A new program for pandemic restaurants and bars would receive $ 25 billion. The grants provide up to $ 10 million per entity with a limit of $ 5 million per physical location. The grants can be used to cover payroll, rent, utilities and other operating costs.
The bill also provides an additional $ 7.25 billion for the Paycheck Protection Program, a tiny fraction of what was allocated in previous legislation. The loans are designed to help borrowers cover their wages and business expenses and may be forgivable.
HELP TO THE UNEMPLOYED
The federal government’s comprehensive unemployment benefits would be expanded from $ 300 a week to $ 400 a week. That’s in addition to what the beneficiaries get through their state unemployment insurance program.
HEALTHCARE
The bill provides funding for key elements of the Biden administration’s COVID-19 response, while also seeking to advance long-standing democratic priorities, such as increasing coverage under the Obama-era Affordable Care Act.
On “Obamacare,” it dangles a tax root for a dozen states, mostly in the South, that have not yet picked up on the law’s Medicaid expansion to cover more low-income adults. Whether such a sweetener would be enough to mitigate long-standing Republican opposition to Medicaid expansion is uncertain.
The bill will bring in $ 46 billion to expand federal, state and local testing for COVID-19 and to enhance contract discovery capabilities with new investments to expand lab capacity and set up mobile testing units. It also includes about $ 14 billion to accelerate the distribution and delivery of COVID-19 vaccines across the country.
INCREASE THE MINIMUM LON
The bill would gradually increase the federal minimum wage to $ 15 an hour by June 2025 and then adjust it to increase it at the same rate as the average hourly wage. However, this provision is not expected to remain in the final settlement. The Senate MP has ruled that it cannot be included in the COVID-19 economic aid package as part of the process the Democrats chose to pass a bill by simple majority.
Biden had predicted such a result. Still, the ruling was a painful setback for most Democratic lawmakers who had said the higher minimum wage would increase wages for millions of Americans. The independent Congressional Budget Office had predicted that the new federal minimum wage would lift about 900,000 people out of poverty once it was fully in place. But Republicans said the mandatory wage increases would make it more difficult for small businesses to survive, and they pointed to the CBO’s prediction that about 1.4 million jobs would be lost if employers looked for ways to offset their higher labor costs.