The US House of Representatives has given final approval to President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion Covid-19 relief bill. The bill is designed to mitigate the financial toll of Covid-19 and puts the US economy on a path to recovery.
The House voted largely along party lines, 220-211, precisely seven weeks after President Biden was sworn in. The US Senate had earlier approved the bill and the President announced he’ll sign it on March 12.
“Help is here,” President Biden tweeted moments after the vote, which ended with applause from Democratic lawmakers. The President’s administration said he’ll address the nation about the bill in the evening on 11th March.
The relief bill
The 628-page bill, dubbed the American Rescue Plan is one of the largest spending packages in US history.
The bill authorises $1,400 direct cheques to an estimated 160 million US citizens and extends federal jobless benefits of $300 a week to unemployed workers. It also provides hundreds of billions in subsidies and bailouts.
In addition, the bill includes $350bn for federal aid to states, cities and tribal governments. This is to help cover budget shortfalls incurred during the pandemic.
It also provides $130bn in funding for primary and secondary public schools to begin to reopen. And includes $14bn for distribution and supplies of vaccines, as well as $8.5bn for rural healthcare providers.
President Biden earlier announced plans to distribute enough vaccines from Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson to vaccinate every US adult by the end of May. So far, more than 123 million doses of vaccine have been distributed, according to the US Centres for Disease Control.
With millions out of work and unable to keep up with rent, the bill extends a federal moratorium on evictions through September. It also provides $45bn in rental and mortgage assistance.
However, a provision to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 was deemed inadmissible under the reconciliation budget process Democrats used to bypass Republican opposition.
Republican opposition
Despite promising unity and bipartisanship, President Biden was unable to persuade a single Republican to vote for the measure. The republicans argued the bill is filled with liberal policies and ignored signs of economic recovery.
They also said the bill is waste of federal resources that would further add to the US’s national debt. The opposition suggested that a better course of action would be to simply reopen the economy.
Republican Representative, Marjorie Taylor Greene called the $1.9 trillion relief bill a “reckless, irresponsible and the wrong thing to do”. She warned that it would “enslave” future generations to a mountain of debt.
House Minority Leader, Kevin McCarthy added that the bill doesn’t “meet the needs of America families.”
“This isn’t a rescue bill. It’s a laundry list of left-wing priorities that predate the pandemic and do not meet the needs of American families.”
House Minority Leader, Kevin McCarthy
Despite the opposition, Democrats stood united to pass what the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, hailed as “the most consequential legislation that many of us will ever be a party to”.
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