President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion Covid-19 relief bill cleared its final congressional hurdle Wednesday, with the House passing the bill on a 220-to-211 vote, sending it to the president for his signature.
The vote caps a nearly two-month sprint from the time Biden first unveiled his American Rescue Plan, through tough negotiations in the Senate to its final approval largely in the form it was first proposed. Biden plans to sign the legislation on Friday.
The bill is a major political victory for the new president, displaying his influence over a Democratic Party in control of Congress by the thinnest of margins. At the same time, the partisan divide over the bill foreshadows the difficulty Biden will have in enacting the multi-trillion dollar, longer-term economic program he wants later this year.
Most Americans will be receiving direct payments of $1,400, with the money starting to go out within days. The bill provides new health-insurance subsidies and child-tax credits, while extending $300 per week supplemental unemployment benefits into September. There’s also $360 billion for state and local governments, a bailout for troubled union pensions and funds to ramp up vaccinations and school re-openings.
Contributions To GDP From $1.9 Trillion Plan
“I join President Biden in his promise: help is on the way,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said as debate concluded, noting that the vote came on the eve of the one-year anniversary of the coronavirus being declared a pandemic and reciting the toll it’s wreaked on America. “This legislation puts nearly $1 trillion in the pockets of the American people.”
Biden plans a primetime address Thursday “to talk about what we’ve been through as a nation this past year,” he said at a White House event Wednesday. “But more importantly, I’m going to talk about what comes next. I’m going to launch the next phase of the Covid response and explain what we will do as a government and what we will ask of the American people. There is light at the end of this dark tunnel.”
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Wednesday said in a statement that, “There will still be tough months ahead, but eventually, this law will help clear away the immediate crisis in front of our eyes, and let us start building a better post-Covid future.”
The Biden administration and Democrats are undertaking a coordinated campaign that will include the president and vice president to drum up awareness and support for the legislation by highlighting 10 ways they say it will help Americans, White House deputy chief of staff Jen O’Malley Dillon said in a Wednesday memo.
U.S. stocks climbed to record highs in February as investors anticipated passage of the stimulus bill, then tumbled at the end of that month amid worries about a surge in bond yields. Treasury yields have stabilized in recent sessions, helping the S&P 500 Index notch log the best back-to-back daily gains in a month on Wednesday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose to a record, closing above 32,000 for the first time.
The relief legislation passed without a single Republican vote in either the House or Senate, in sharp contrast to the five previous bipartisan Covid-19 bills enacted under President Donald Trump, before the pandemic began retreating amid the current vaccination drive.
Representative Jared Golden of Maine was the lone Democratic no vote. He also had voted against the version that passed the House earlier.
Republicans blasted Biden, Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer for rejecting more modest proposals. With the economy already on the rebound, they said the aid bill was excessive and will escalate financial risks.
“You can’t just keep adding mountains of debt at hundreds of billions at a time” without consequence, said Steve Scalise of Louisiana, the No. 2 House Republican. “When you look at the priorities of Speaker Pelosi, it’s to spend as much money as quickly as possible on her socialist agenda.”
Republicans especially objected to the more than $360 billion in state and local government funds being provided when many states are not showing any revenue loss during the pandemic.
Senator Rick Scott of Florida issued a call to governors and majors to return to Washington any funding that’s in excess of “federally reimbursable Covid-19 related expenses.”