New York Post

House Dems pass doomed $3T relief

- By STEVEN NELSON Additional reporting by Ebony Bowden

House Democrats passed a $3 trillion coronaviru­s relief bill on Friday night, despite Senate Republican­s and President Trump declaring the so-called Heroes Act dead on arrival.

Republican leader Kevin McCarthy of California complained that the 1,800-page bill was “the largest bill in the history of Congress” — and that it was unfurled this week without a committee hearing.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), meanwhile, vowed that the measure would go nowhere.

The Heroes Act “reads like the speaker of the House pasted together random ideas from her most liberal members and slapped the word ‘coronaviru­s’ on top of it,” McConnell said of Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Oddly, the bill — which would allow state-legal marijuana businesses access to some financial services — mentions “cannabis” at least 68 times, while “jobs” get a mere 52 mentions.

Democratic defenders of the bill argued that Republican foot-dragging forced them to move ahead with a unilateral proposal.

The bill passed with 14 left-wing and centrist Democrats voting “no” and a single Republican — Rep. Peter King of Long Island — voting in favor.

Earlier Friday evening, Democrats passed a measure that allows proxy voting for future legislatio­n and defeated a GOP push to ban illegal immigrants from receiving stimulus checks.

The new relief bill includes almost $1 trillion in funding for state and local government­s, which Republican­s led by Trump are wary of granting.

It would authorize another round of stimulus checks up to $1,200, create a $200 billion “heroes fund” giving hazard pay to medical workers, allocate $175 billion to rent and mortgage aid and spend $75 billion on virus testing and contact tracing.

The bill also would extend the $600-per-week federal boost in unemployme­nt insurance payments through next January.

[It] reads like the speaker of the House pasted together random ideas from her most liberal members and slapped the word “coronaviru­s” on top. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (left), turning thumbs down the ‘Pelosi’ House bill

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