Congress seals a deal on $900B COVID relief bill
Dolphins’ focus on present, not Pats’ demise
The agreement on the almost $1 trillion COVID-19 economic relief package, announced by congressional leaders on Sunday, would establish a $600 direct stimulus payment to most Americans. House leaders informed lawmakers that they would vote on the legislation on Monday, and the Senate was likely to vote on Monday, too.
Congressional leaders on Sunday reached a hard-fought agreement on a $900 billion stimulus package that would send immediate aid to Americans and businesses to help them cope with the economic devastation of the pandemic and fund the distribution of vaccines.
The deal would deliver the first significant infusion of federal dollars into the economy since April, as negotiators broke through months of partisan gridlock that had scuttled earlier talks, leaving millions
of Americans and businesses without federal help as the pandemic raged.
While the plan is roughly half the size of the $2.2 trillion stimulus law enacted in March, it is one of the largest relief packages in modern history.
“We can finally report what our nation has needed to hear for a very long time,” Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., the majority leader, said Sunday night. “More help is on the way.”
It was expected to be merged with a sweeping catchall spending measure that would keep the government funded for the remainder of the fiscal year, creating a $2.3 trillion behemoth whose passage will be Congress’ last substantive legislative achievement before adjourning for the year. The deal came together after a weekend of frenzied negotiating only hours before the government was set to run out of funding and two weeks before the next Congress was to convene on Jan. 3.
Still, even as it prepared to pass a consequential measure, Congress was at the peak of its dysfunction, having left so little time to complete it that lawmakers faced a series of contortions to get it across the finish line. With additional time needed to transform their agreement into legislative text, both chambers had to approve a one-day stopgap spending bill — their third such temporary extension the past 10 days — to avoid a government shutdown while they were finalizing the deal.
The House did so on Sunday night, and the Senate was expected to follow suit. Final votes on the spending package were expected on Monday to approve it and clear it for President Donald Trump’s signature, but had yet to be scheduled.
$600 PAYMENTS FOR MILLIONS
Although text was not immediately available, the agreement was expected to provide $600 stimulus payments to millions of American adults earning up to $75,000. It would revive lapsed supplemental federal unemployment benefits at $300 a week for 11 weeks — setting both at half the amount provided by the original stimulus law.
It would also continue and expand benefits for gig workers and freelancers, and it would extend federal payments for people whose regular benefits have expired.
The measure would also provide more than $284 billion for businesses and revive the Paycheck Protection Program, a popular federal loan program for small businesses that lapsed over the summer. It would expand eligibility under the program for nonprofits, local newspapers and radio and TV broadcasters and allocate $15 billion for performance venues, independent movie theaters and other cultural institutions devastated by the restrictions imposed to stop the spread of the coronavirus.
The agreement is also expected to provide billions of dollars for testing, tracing and vaccine distribution, as well as $82 billion for colleges and schools, $13 billion in increased nutrition assistance, $7 billion for broadband access and $25 billion in rental assistance. The agreement is also expected to extend an eviction moratorium set to expire at the end of the year.
“We have now reached agreement on a bill that will crush the virus and put money in the pockets of working families who are struggling,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi wrote to Democrats on Sunday in a letter outlining some of the details of the measure. “This emergency relief bill is an important initial step.”
BIDEN: SUM NOWHERE NEAR LARGE ENOUGH
While Trump’s signature will be on the law, its effect will be far more significant for President-elect Joe Biden, who faces the task of shepherding the shaky economic recovery. Biden, who quietly pushed for lawmakers to strike a compromise that would deliver at least some modest help after months of congressional inaction, has said the package is nowhere near large enough to meet the nation’s needs, and is expected to seek yet another major economic relief package after taking office in January.
Economists had warned that a stimulus measure of the size under discussion on Capitol Hill would fall short of the level of assistance needed to support the economic recovery, though the bill eclipsed the roughly $800 billion stimulus package that Congress approved in 2009 to counter the
Great Recession. Democrats, having ceded demands for another multitrillion-dollar package, were already calling on Biden to act quickly on a much larger relief plan.
“Once this deal is signed into law, it cannot be the final word on congressional relief,” said Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic leader, who referred to the agreement as a “down payment.”
With Republicans bent on keeping the cost of any relief under $1 trillion, negotiators
scaled back the aid substantially from the stimulus measure enacted in March, when the ruinous toll of the pandemic was just becoming clear.
As congressional leaders clashed over their competing priorities for another round of aid, coronavirus cases surged, millions of Americans slipped into poverty and countless businesses, restaurants and performance venues shuttered as their revenues evaporated amid the pandemic.
“There is no doubt this new agreement contains input from our Democratic colleagues — it is bipartisan,” said McConnell, who refused for months to act on a stimulus package, saying that Congress should pause and consider the deficit before providing more relief. “But these matters could have been settled long ago.”
Emboldened in the aftermath of the November election, a bipartisan group of moderates brokered their own $748 billion compromise, pressuring congressional leaders to redouble their efforts to find a deal. Ultimately, the top two Democrats and top two Republicans on Capitol Hill, huddling with their staff and at times Steven Mnuchin, the Treasury secretary, wrangled the final agreement over a few chaotic days the week before Christmas.
THE AGREEMENT
The deal was far narrower than the one Democrats had long insisted upon, and nearly twice the size of the one Republicans had said they could ever accept in the days leading up to the November election. At the core of the breakthrough was a mutual agreement to drop critical priorities championed by one party and loathed by the other: a Democratic push to establish a direct stream of funds for cash-strapped state and local governments, and a Republican demand for sweeping liability protections for businesses, hospitals and other institutions open during the pandemic.
But it nearly fell apart as Democrats sought additional avenues to provide relief to state and local governments suffering significant revenue shortages, and as
Republicans fought to limit the power of the Federal Reserve to provide credit to municipalities, businesses or other institutions, as it has done this year through an array of emergency lending programs intended to stabilize the economy during the pandemic in times of crisis.
Sen. Patrick Toomey, R-Pa., mounted a last-minute push to ensure that those programs would end and prevent the Fed and Treasury Department from setting up any similar one in the future. Democrats balked, arguing that the move would deprive the Fed of critical tools for bolstering the economy, and tie Biden’s hands as he confronts a daunting public health and economic crisis.
Shortly before midnight Saturday, in talks with Schumer, Toomey agreed to narrow his language considerably, to a provision that would bar only emergency lending programs that were more or less exact copycats of the ones newly employed in 2020. Democrats also secured an extension for state and local governments to spend money allocated under the March stimulus law, ahead of a Dec. 31 deadline.
The agreement also reflected a last-ditch effort by progressive Democrats, who found unlikely allies in both Trump and Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., to secure a more robust round of direct payments. Hours before lawmakers announced a final agreement, the president, who had been remarkably absent from the talks, exhorted Congress to reach a deal and called for “more direct payments.”
The foundation of the package unveiled Sunday mirrors the core of the March stimulus law, as lawmakers sought to continue programs that proved to be critical lifelines for millions of struggling Americans and businesses and address concerns that have emerged over recent months.
Without congressional action, as many as 12 million Americans were set to lose access to expanded and extended unemployment benefits set to expire after Christmas. A number of other critical relief provisions, including an eviction moratorium, were set to expire on Dec. 31.
SOME BENEFITS CURTAILED
Confronted with widespread Republican reluctance to another round of federal spending, lawmakers curtailed a number of the benefits. Dependents who are 17 and older will not be eligible for the $600 direct payments, although lawmakers agreed to provide direct checks to people who filed jointly with a person who uses an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number instead of a Social Security number, according to one person familiar with the emerging agreement. The last round of $1,200 stimulus payments prohibited that, blocking the estimated 1.2 million American citizens married to immigrants in the country illegally from receiving them.
While lawmakers agreed to extend multiple unemployment programs into spring, Republicans insisted that the benefits be gradually phased out by early April. Democrats had hoped for a hard end date for the jobless programs to pressure negotiators back to the table in early spring before they expired.
The relief package was to be paired with a $1.4 trillion catchall government spending bill. Included are the 12 annual appropriation bills to fund every federal department and social safety net programs, as well as an array of legislative add-ons lawmakers attached to ensure their priorities could be enacted before Congress adjourns for the year.
For a Congress that has been gripped by legislative paralysis in recent years, the spending measure includes a remarkable array of major policy initiatives, according to Pelosi and Schumer. It contains a ban on surprise medical bills that happen when patients unexpectedly receive care from an out-ofnetwork health provider. Instead of sending those charges to patients, hospitals and doctors will now need to work with health insurers to settle the bills. Lawmakers have spent two years drafting the agreement, which received widespread bipartisan support but faced significant opposition from doctor and hospital groups.
Democrats secured significant college affordability provisions, such as a significant expansion of the federal Pell grant program for low-income students and reversing a decades-old ban on extending the grants to prisoners pursuing degrees behind bars.
The spending package also includes significant bipartisan deals to counter climate change and promote clean energy, the first such legislation to pass Congress in nearly a decade. Among the provisions is legislation that would cut the use of powerful planet-warming chemicals used in air-conditioners and refrigerators, and amount to a rare Republican rebuke to Trump on the issue of global warming.
The temptation is to see this amazing, satisfying, hard-won, accomplishment in historical terms. The Dolphins eliminated the New England Patriots from the playoffs on Sunday with a 22-12 victory, and everyone is rushing to announce that the king is dead.
And long live the new king because that might just be the Dolphins in a year or two after serving as a prince in the Buffalo Bills’ court.
Yeah, forget that.
Because that pronouncement may or may not really mean much a year or two from now.
It obviously meant nothing after the Miami Miracle of December 2018, a stunning Dolphins victory over New England that the preceded three consecutive losses. And it meant nothing after that December 2014 win over New England, which Miami followed with two consecutive losses to end that season.
So don’t go there because we know better. And also because the Dolphins aren’t wasting their time with the empty exercise.
This game, instead, should be savored on its own merits for what it means to the Dolphins, not to the Patriots.
So now you’re asking the next logical question, which is what the heck does this fulfilling victory over Bill Belichick’s team mean to the Dolphins?
Let me start with the fact the Dolphins’ rebuild, so painful and onerous through December of
2019, is ahead of schedule exactly one year later.
Stop reading now if you disagree.
Go.
Because if you can’t agree with that fundamental fact, you won’t understand the remaining 46 paragraphs of this column. (Disclaimer: There aren’t 46 more paragraphs coming, I’m just trying to weed out the riffraff.)
Friends, the Dolphins won their ninth game of the season Sunday. They are guaranteed a winning season and are close to doubling their victory total from a year ago.
There’s a word for that in my country: progress.
And because the season is still weeks from ending, this team might actually venture into the land of double-digit win totals for the first time since 2016 and for only the third time since 2008.
So, yes, the Dolphins are ahead of schedule in doing what they set out to when they tore the whole thing down in the spring and fall of ’19— and that was to set themselves up to compete for NFL championships year after year.
Owner Stephen Ross didn’t want to ride the roller-coaster ride that included 10-6 heights and precipitous 6-10 drops anymore.
He wanted 11-5, or 12-4, or better, for consecutive years at a time. You wanted that, too.
But the logical assumption was that maybe the Dolphins could recover from last season and make it back to .500 this year, before making a run at the playoffs next season. That would have been a solid three-year return on last year’s painful investment.
Except nobody told the 2020 Dolphins.
They don’t operate by logic and modest progressions. They work off their own standards, which means, well, win every week no matter the circumstance or cost.
“I think we got a mentally tough, physically tough, resilient group that knows how to deal with adversity,” coach Brian Flores said after the game. “[This team] doesn’t go in the tank. Keeps fighting, keeps working. Keeps coming to work good, bad, hot, raining, whatever the situation is. These guys just work. Our coaches are the same way, really everyone in the building is that way.
“We battle for each other, players, coaches, support staff. We’ll continue to do that. That’s one thing I know every day that everyone is going to work hard. I don’t take it for granted, but I know that’s the case.”
That kind of approach isn’t sexy. There’s no “Ballers” episode coming from the script the workmanlike Dolphins play by every week.
But the results offer their own excitement even if the approach doesn’t and, indeed, even if the games don’t.
I’m certain you weren’t fired up Sunday afternoon when the Dolphins trailed 6-0 at halftime and the offense had all the juice of a stone.
I’m certain you weren’t thinking the offense Belichick just shut out in the first half would deliver 22 second-half points and a
comeback victory — and do it without its top playmakers.
And here’s the good news: The Dolphins might be a better team next week.
Flores said after the game that the starters who were inactive Sunday— Ereck Flowers, DeVante Parker, Mike Gesicki and Jakeem Grant— “went down to the wire” on their game status.
“They were all close,” Flores said. “These guys are fighting to play.”
Last time Flores said something similar was about quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, who missed a start against the New York Jets because of a thumb injury. Tagovailoa played the next week.
So one can reasonably expect the players who were almost well enough to play Sunday will be in the lineup next week, barring unforeseen setbacks.
That means more talent
will be available against
Las Vegas next week.
After this win, while some were dancing on the New England dynasty’s grave, the Dolphins were kind of just shrugging about making such calls.
“Really, we just got to stay in the moment,” defensive lineman Christian Wilkins said. “That’s the biggest thing. Just keep worrying about each week, each game and, hopefully, good things will continue to come for us, really.
“I’m not worried necessarily about, ‘Oh, what’s it going to look like next year, this year.’ You know what I’m saying? I just try to take it day by day, and we as a team try to take it day by day and then good things will come for us if we just put our head down and grind and just continue to do things the right way.”
Wilkins, a big Hamilton fan, was dressed kind of like the play’s lead character during his press con
ference. So the man dressed like a Founding Father was delivering wisdom.
And it’s good that a player only in his second NFL season is already fully immersed in what the Dolphins are trying to represent. That speaks well of the future, while also delivering a tangible result in the present.
Please enjoy that result, whatever the future holds.
“It’s always good to win,” Flores said. “That’s why these guys put out the blood, sweat and tears. That’s why they prepare so hard and practice so hard and lift the weights. Not so much for me but for this team and these players and the effort they put into trying to go out and execute, I’m just happy for these guys.”