The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
COVID-19 RELIEF BILL HAS 1 MORE HURDLE
Biden eager to sign off on major legislative victory for Democrats.
WASHINGTON — The House is poised to approve a sweeping $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief bill today and send it to President Joe Biden to sign, a major early legislative victory for the new president and the Democrats who control Congress.
Despite united GOP opposition and a narrow Democratic majority, House Democratic leaders expressed confidence on Tuesday that they will have votes to spare. House Democratic Caucus Chairman Hakeem Jeffries of New York said he was “110% confident” of success.
Democrats touted the breadth of the legislation, which they’ve begun to frame not just as a bill to attack the coronavirus pandemic and economic downturn, but as a generational anti-poverty measure.
“This legislation represents the boldest action taken on behalf of the American people since the Great Depression,” House Democratic Caucus Vice Chairman Pete Aguilar of California said Tuesday.
“This is seismic legislation,” said Ways and Means Chairman Richard Neal, D-mass.
Republicans are using much the same argument against the bill, saying it’s largely unconnected to the pandemic crisis.
“We know for sure that it includes provisions that are not targeted, they’re not temporary, they’re not related to COVID and it didn’t have to be this way,” said House Republican Conference Chair Liz Cheney of Wyoming. “We could have had a bill that was a fraction of the cost of this one; it could have gotten bipartisan approval and support.”
Final House passage of the legislation would come after the Senate approved the bill on Saturday afternoon following an all-night session. Along the way, moderate Senate Democrats pushed some changes opposed by liberals in the House, including narrowing eligibility for stimulus checks and keeping emergency federal unemployment benefits at their current $300-per-week level instead of increasing them to $400 per week as initially proposed by Biden. A $15 minimum wage also was struck from the bill.