Senior negotiators on Capitol Hill closed a deal Sunday on a nearly $ 1 trillion support package to counter the economic effects of COVID-19, ultimately helping businesses and individuals and allocating money for the distribution of long-awaited vaccines.
The deal, announced by Senate leaders, would introduce an additional $ 300 per week temporary unemployment benefit and $ 600 direct stimulus payments to most Americans, as well as another round of subsidies for hard-hit businesses. money for schools, care providers and tenants who are evicted.
The lower house is expected to vote on the bill on Monday, a spokeswoman for the Democratic majority leader in that house, Steny Hoyer, said.
The House of Representatives would pass an interim spending bill for one day Sunday at midnight to avoid a government shutdown. The Senate is also likely to vote on Monday. Lawmakers are eager to leave Washington and finish their jobs in a tumultuous year.
“There is yet to be a major bailout for the American people,” said Mitch McConnell, majority leader in the Senate, announcing an agreement on a relief bill totaling nearly $ 900 billion. “It’s full of specific policies to help troubled Americans 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 government-wide funding plan and multiple additional tax, health, and education measures.
Its approval is approaching as the number of cases and deaths from the coronavirus increases and there is growing evidence that the economy is in trouble.
Last-minute decisions would limit the additional $ 300 per week unemployment benefit – equivalent to half of the federal unemployment benefit provided under the CARES Act in March – to 10 weeks instead of 16 weeks as before.
The $ 600 direct incentive payment to most people is also half of what was paid in March, subject to the same income limits in which the individual payment for an individual begins to taper off for people making $ 75,000 or more annually.