Congress Passes COVID Relief Bill of $900 Billion After a Long Wait

Congress Passes COVID Relief Bill of $900 Billion After a Long Wait
Image Credit: NPR

Congress passes the COVID relief bill along with a government expenditure package on Monday, December 21. It is all a part of long-awaited help to fight against an economic and health crisis. Moreover, the two chambers smoothly endorsed legislation worth over $2 trillion in polls that went on till late in the evening.

On the other hand, the Congress leaders approved a $900 billion bill and another $1.4 trillion. The bill is a part of a pandemic aid project that the government started on September 30. The package that we see here was the outcome of a 359-53 poll majority. Moreover, the Senate also passed the same under a 92-6 majority. However, six GOP senators do not support the bill. They are Marsha Blackburn (Tennessee), Ron Johnson (Wisconsin), Ted Cruz (Texas), Mike Lee (Utah), Rick Scott (Florida), and Rand Paul (Kentucky).

Simultaneously, Congress passed a seven-day stopgap expenditure bill to keep the public authority open during the time it takes for the entire year enactment to get to President Donald Trump’s work area. Trump marked the transitory spending charge, keeping the public authority financed through December 28.

Congress passes COVID relief bill to help Americans finally.

Since Spring, the bill will supply all types of help to the American people for the first time. However, the aid will take a lot of time to reach the families struggling to stay at home during this pandemic. These are mostly people who have small businesses and are continually finding it difficult to sustain. They are facing a lack of enough food and shelter too.

On the other hand, after Congress passes COVID relief bill, small businesses will get loans. Plus, the bills consist of jobless benefits and direct funds and payments worth $600. The same is to fund the critical distribution of coronavirus vaccines, among several other provisions. Moreover, Trump is to sign the bill to initiate the law very soon. Besides, the signing may be one of the very last duties of Donald Trump before he is leaving office.

After the vote closure, Steven Mnuchin, Treasury Secretary, reveals that the deserving people will receive the amount within a few days. The same is applicable only for people who are eligible for direct payments. On the one hand, Congress is walking that extra step to carry out one of the most historical rescue plans. While on the other hand, the American government is finding it quite challenging to understand the 5,000-page legislation.

What are the focal points that Congress is considering?

The primary aim of the Congress was to combat two focal issues. The first is the end of the pandemic period unemployment projects. The same will result in over 12million people to lose out on benefits on December 26. The second one is the exhaustion of a particular federal eviction moratorium, resulting in mass damage. It means that over 10 million people may lose their homes by the end of this year.

On the contrary, Democrat authorities are not willing to wait to get more help. On Monday, December 21, Chuck Schumer, minority senate leader, says that the Congress bill is alright, but undoubtedly not enough.

The critical points of the latest legislation include a $300/week unemployment benefit. Moreover, it demands that gig workers and freelancers must also become eligible to receive unemployment benefits. There must be payments of $600 for individuals earning at least $75,000. Plus, a couple earning around $1,50,000 will also be eligible. Last but not least, every child is entitled to a fund worth $600.

What will the new Congress bill include?

The legislation allows $284 billion for a unique paycheck security program and as loans for small businesses. Moreover, $8billion will go into the vaccine distribution fund and $20billion for Americans who must receive free shots. The recent bill also consists of a minimum of $20 billion extra for funding COVID contact tracing and testing initiatives.

The Congress Bill demands an extension of the eviction moratorium till January 31, 2020, and $25 billion as rental support. There must be at least $13 billion as a food fund as part of the Supplemental Nutrition Help Project’s 15% worth. Besides, there I a category that allots $45billion and $82billion for transportation and education simultaneously.

There are other categories that Congress demands in the latest legislation. For example, there is a $15 billion funding for American air carriers suffering from the pandemic. The extra funding will help the airline companies call back at least 32,000 employees and pay them salaries till March 2021. This will be extra funding exclusive of the $25 billion CARES Act funding from March 2020.

A few days back, Mitch McConnell, Majority Senate leader from the Kentucky Region, compliments the bill. He states that it is nothing short of an epic rescue operation. Moreover, McConnell says that the Americans have been waiting for quite a long time to receive this kind of help. The journey of the bill is a witness to severe failure at the end of US authorities.

Congress passes COVID relief bill after a lot of chaos.

It was during a pathetic time when there was a severe health crisis that killed over 3,10,000 people. Plus, the economic crisis leaves millions of people in poverty presently. After the US government managed to pass a bill worth $2trillion in March under the CARES Act, the Democrats applied for another worth over $3trillion benefits in May 2020. The Republican leaders kept questioning the requirement of extra federal aid for several months. Finally, in July, Mitch McConnell came out with a $500 billion plan.

The Democrats once again came up with a $2trillion project in October, out of which they got a sanction of $500billion worth of proposals. Nancy Pelosi, the House Speaker, and D. Califf repeatedly became part of arguments regarding how serious the situation is becoming. They were also fighting to prove that the federal government’s responsibility is more than what they are doing. However, Mitch McConnell was continually criticizing the Democrats, referring to their approach as very illogical.

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