Congress passes COVID aid package
$900B includes stimulus checks, small-business help
WASHINGTON — After weeks of negotiations, Congress on Monday night passed a $900 billion coronavirus relief package that will send morestimulus checks to manyTexans, boost unemployment benefits and offer billions of dollars in assistance for small businesses.
The package will send $600 checks to those making less than $75,000 and their children and will add $300 a week in unemployment for 11 weeks. Both payments are half as much as Congress offered up in the first round of COVID stimulus this spring. The package also includes another round of forgivable paycheck protection loans, some $41 billion of which have gone to more than 417,000 small businesses in Texas.
And the package includes funds for vaccine distribution, as well as increased food stamp aid and rental assistance. It also offers billions of dollars to help schools and colleges make necessary upgrades to reopen safely.
The House passed the relief package on a 359-53 vote Monday evening. Two dozen Texans, including every Democrat, voted for the bill, with nine Republicans opposing it and three not voting. The Texans who voted against it were Reps. Chip Roy of Austin — whose district includes parts of San Antonio — Brian Babin of Woodville, Michael Burgess of Lewisville, Michael Cloud of Victoria, Mike Conaway of Midland, Louie Gohmert of Tyler, Lance Gooden of Terrell, Van Taylor of Plano and Randy Weber of Friendswood.
Late Monday, the Senate cleared the package by a 91-6 vote. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas was one of six Republicans in the chamber to vote against it.
The White House has said Presi
dent Donald Trump will sign the legislation.
The stimulus is part of a massive spending agreement that also funds the government through September and includes a bonanza of measures unrelated to the virus, such as ending surprise medical billing, curbing youth vaping and creating a national Latino history museum. The nearly 5,600page bill is the lengthiest ever passed by Congress, the Associated Press reported.
“Even though it’s frustrating it took us months to get here … we finally got the kind of bipartisan cooperation we needed,” said Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas.
The package also marks some key wins for Texas lawmakers, including Cornyn, whose legislation to offer $15 billion to live music and other arts venues was included. So was a fix sought by U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro, a San Antonio Democrat, that will send the first stimulus checks to families with members of mixed immigration status.
The stimulus checks sent earlier this year were limited to those who filed taxes with Social Security numbers, meaning many U.S. citizens living with immigrants — who file with taxpayer IDs — were left out. As many as 940,000 Texans who otherwise would have been eligible for the checks, many of them citizens, didn’t get one because they are either married to a person who came to the U.S. without legal authorization or have parents who did, according to estimates by the Migration Policy Institute.
Families with at least one taxpaying U.S. citizen will get those checks now, as well as the new round of payments.
“It is a victory for hardworking families in Texas, and also just the start of what is necessary for a fair and full economic recovery,” said Castro, who chairs the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. “This legislative fix is a significant improvement and a critical lifeline during this crisis.”
The bill also gives states and cities another year to spend money from previous COVID relief packages, meaning Texas no longer has to spend some $2 billion in federal funding by the end of the month.
While some lawmakers heralded the package as a bipartisan victory that will offer some relief during the holiday season and as vaccinations begin, others said it will not do enough to help those most in need. The $600 checks for those making less than $75,000, for instance, have been ridiculed. The amount is enough to cover just over half of an average month’s rent in Texas’ biggest cities.
“Too little, too late!” Rep. Lloyd Doggett, an Austin Democrat whose district includes part of San Antonio, said in a statement. “Modest help for many who are struggling, important funding for vaccine distribution — but some sorry provisions, and many omissions. Hopefully, it will at least help those most in need make it until we have a new administration.”
Others, including Roy, criticized the way the package came together. The text of the massive bill wasn’t released until Monday afternoon, just hours before the House vote.
“The swamp, ladies and gentlemen, in action,” Roy tweeted. “And again, a vote for this bill (and a signature on it) is a vote to perpetuate that swamp.”
There was bipartisan outrage over the way the bill was rushed to passage Monday.
“Members of Congress have not read this bill. It’s over 5000 pages, arrived at 2pm today, and we are told to expect a vote on it in 2 hours,” tweeted Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a New York Democrat.
The latest relief package also includes some major legislation not directly related to the coronavirus.
Perhaps the most significant is a measure aimed at ending surprise medical billing, a practice Texas lawmakers have long said they want to stop. Texas has one of the highest incidences of surprise bills in the U.S., and health economists have reported a 27 percent likelihood of Texans getting an out-of-network bill after outpatient emergency room treatment — nearly double the national average of 14 percent. The legislation would make those bills illegal.
“This bipartisan solution is so important to the American people,” said Rep. Kevin Brady, a Republican from The Woodlands. “This is a strong and needed package.”
The package also offers up billions of dollars to expand broadband networks. It includes some higher education reforms that lawmakers have sought for years, including repealing a ban on incarcerated students accessing Pell grants and simplifying the federal student aid application. It also forgives federal loans for historically Black colleges and universities.
The bill also takes steps toward establishing a Smithsonian museum on the National Mall for American Latino history, art and culture, an effort championed by more than two dozen Texans in the House, as well as Cornyn and Cruz in the Senate.
Texas lawmakers were touting provisions they were able to get into the deal, including Rep. Pete Olson, a retiring Sugar Land Republican who championed provisions that would phase out the use of hydrofluorocarbons, chemicals common in coolants that are known to contribute to climate change. Olson also pushed for provisions that would offer raises to federal energy regulators and require doctors to talk to their patients on Medicare about the cost of medication they prescribe.
Democrats have vowed to push for more relief after Presidentelect Joe Biden takes office. It’s unclear, however, whether Republicans will be willing to offer up yet more after Congress has authorized over $4 trillion in COVID funding this year.
“I’m worried where congressional Democrats are wanting to go, and I’m worried even where some Republicans want to go,” Cruz said this month. “I don’t think the answer is just shoveling trillions outside the door. We can’t print enough money to get through this.”