President Joe Biden’s nearly $2 trillion COVID-19 stimulus package will land on his desk before unemployment aid lapses for millions of Americans who lost jobs during the pandemic, top Democrats on Capitol Hill pledged recently.
In the House of Representatives, where provisions to boost vaccinations, businesses and taxpayers’ bank accounts have been reviewed by the Budget and Ways and Means committees, lawmakers plan to vote by Friday. And Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer recently vowed that Senate approval would come before March 14, when jobless aid approved in previous coronavirus aid bills expires.
Based on Democrats’ timeline, the Internal Revenue Service may start issuing stimulus checks of $1,400 to Americans earning less than $75,000 by late March. To calculate your potential stimulus check, read here.
“In coordination with our Senate committees, the House is finalizing the legislation for consideration on the House floor later this week,” Schumer said in a letter to colleagues on Friday.
The New York Democrat said that leaders are still open to suggestions and ideas, and noted the bill has already incorporated proposals from Democrats and Republicans alike. “The Senate is on track to send a robust $1.9 trillion package to the president’s desk before the March 14 expiration of unemployment insurance benefits. We will meet this deadline,” he added.
Democrats are pushing the bill through the annual budget reconciliation process, which only requires a simple majority vote — in other words, it won’t require Republican support to make it to the White House. In the case of a tie in the Senate, where Republicans and some conservative Democrats have expressed concerns about the bill’s price tag, Vice President Kamala Harris can cast the deciding vote.
On top of the stimulus checks, Biden’s plan includes hundreds of billions of dollars for vaccine distribution and to help reopen schools, $35 billion to help local governments boost small businesses and a $25 billion restaurant grant program, and more than $300 billion to help state and local governments recover from a crippling decline in tax revenue since the pandemic began.
“The provisions in the emergency COVID relief package — to keep families out of poverty, safely reopen schools, distribute the vaccine, crush the virus and more — are broadly popular with the American people and Republicans should not oppose or delay this much needed assistance,” Schumer said. “If Republicans are ready to work with Democrats on constructive amendments that will improve the bill, we are ready to work. However, we must not allow Republican obstructionism to deter us from our mission of delivering help to Americans who desperately need this relief. Make no mistake: the era of Mitch McConnell’s legislative graveyard is over.”
The package also expands the child tax credit, a proposal from Ways and Means Chairman Richard Neal’s office, extends federal additional unemployment benefits through Aug. 29 and increases the weekly supplemental jobless aid to $400.
House Republican leaders are urging their caucus to vote against the package.
According to C-SPAN, GOP leaders in a recent memo blasted the bill as House Speaker Nancy “Pelosi’s Payoff to Progressives Act.” They argued that Democrats have rejected hundreds of Republican amendments. They say the bill fails to ensure taxpayer dollars do not go toward abortions; causes unemployment by calling for an increase to the minimum wage; and includes a “bailout for blue states.”
In fact, the state and local aid included in the bill goes to all states regardless of the political affiliation of its leaders.
Pelosi responded by citing polling showing nearly three-quarters of Americans, including a majority of Republicans outside Congress, support the bill.
“Americans need help. House Republicans don’t care,” she said.
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