House Passes President Biden’s $1.9 Trillion Covid Relief Package
This Saturday morning, the House of Representatives voted to approve President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion pandemic aid package.
Democrats who control the chamber passed The American Rescue Plan Act by a mostly party-line vote of 219 to 212. As Reuters notes, the vote closed shortly after 2 a.m. Saturday after a long day of debate. All but two Democrats supported the sprawling coronavirus relief package, with zero Republicans backing it. “The numbers speak volumes. 18 million Americans on unemployment. 24 million people are going hungry,” Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on the floor just before its passage. “The time for decisive action is long overdue.”
The bill includes $1,400 in direct checks for Americans making under $75,000, a $400 per week supplemental unemployment bonus, money for vaccine distribution, along with funding to aid schools and state and local governments.
It also includes language around gradually increasing the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour. The measure will now head to the Senate where it faces a rocky path in the evenly divided chamber.
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