$2.2 Trillion Dollar Stimulus Passes in House
After an ongoing deadlock, Congress passed a $2.2 trillion Democratic stimulus bill late on Thursday which was approved with a bipartisan vote of 214-207 in the House. Eighteen Democratic Congress members from key election districts voted against the legislation, citing fatigue from the ongoing struggle between both sides of the aisle to come to agreeable terms.
It’s quite likely the coronavirus economic stimulus bill will not be approved in the Republican majority-held Senate, as iterated by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell from the very start of the negotiations to extend economic coronavirus relief. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has been in ongoing discussions with Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, although they failed to reach a compromise on several components of the bill. The GOP has largely been conservative in the funding they are willing to approve, suggesting a little more than half of what Democrats proposed.
The Democratic stimulus package includes reinstating the $600 weekly federal unemployment benefit, extending the moratorium on tenant evictions, additional mortgage assistance programs, paycheck protection loans for businesses, $25 billion in payroll aid for the financially devastated airline industry and another round of stimulus checks for individuals and families. Additional terms provide for $75 billion for contact tracing measures, over $275 billion for education and childcare assistance, and $436 billion for local and state governments spanned over the course of a year.
Ann Sullivan is a contributing staff writer covering national and world news topics. She brings dedicated experience having written international and domestic news, blogs, and web content for over 20 years. She’s also a published poet and graphic designer with degrees in Business and Graphic Communications and has been a music distributor, music industry sponsorship sales director and band manager.