Congress Strikes Long-Sought Stimulus Deal to Provide $900 Billion in Aid
Democrats and Republicans said they had an agreement on another round of pandemic aid, including direct payments to Americans, jobless benefits and funds for businesses and vaccine distribution.
Congress Reaches Deal on $900 Billion Coronavirus Relief Plan
Senator Mitch McConnell, the majority leader, said on Sunday evening the stimulus package would include direct payments for Americans.
More help is on the way. Moments ago, in consultation with our committees, the four leaders of the Senate and the House finalized an agreement. It will be another major rescue package for the American people. As our citizens continue battling this coronavirus this holiday season, they will not be fighting alone.
We’ve agreed to a package of nearly $900 billion. It is packed with targeted policies that help struggling Americans who have already waited entirely too long.
or workers at the hardest-hit small businesses, there will be a targeted second draw of the Paycheck Protection Program.
We’ve not worked so hard to save as many jobs as possible all these months only to fumble the ball with vaccinations already underway.
Speaking of vaccines, we can nullify the success of Operation Warp Speed by falling asleep at the switch on distribution, so this agreement will provide huge sums for the logistics that will get these lifesaving shots to our citizens as fast as possible.
Of course, many millions of Americans have lost their jobs and are continuing to lose them through no fault of their own. This package will renew and extend a number of the additional important federal unemployment benefits that have helped families stay afloat. Across all kinds of families, in all kinds of situations, this has been a difficult time across the board.
So at the particular request and emphasis of President Trump and his administration, our agreement will provide another round of direct-impact payments to help households make ends meet and continue our economic recovery.
Senator Mitch McConnell, the majority leader, said on Sunday evening the stimulus package would include direct payments for Americans.CreditCredit...Stefani Reynolds for The New York Times
By Emily Cochrane
Dec. 20, 2020Updated 7:36 p.m. ET
WASHINGTON — 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,” Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and 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’s 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.
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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.
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The House was expected to do 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 Trump’s signature, but had yet to be scheduled.
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.
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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.
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“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,” 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.”
While Mr. Trump’s signature will be on the law, its effect will be far more significant for President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr., who faces the task of shepherding the shaky economic recovery. Mr. 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 Mr. Biden to act quickly on a much larger relief plan.
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Senator Mitch McConnell, the majority leader, said on Sunday evening the stimulus package would include direct payments for Americans.CreditCredit...Stefani Reynolds for The New York Times
By Emily Cochrane
Dec. 20, 2020Updated 7:36 p.m. ET
WASHINGTON — 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,” Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and 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’s 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.
ADVERTISEMENTContinue reading the main story
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.
Thanks for reading The Times.Subscribe to The Times
The House was expected to do 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 Trump’s signature, but had yet to be scheduled.
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.
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ADVERTISEMENTContinue reading the main story
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.
DEALBOOK: An examination of the major business and policy headlines and the power brokers who shape them.Sign Up
“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,” 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.”
While Mr. Trump’s signature will be on the law, its effect will be far more significant for President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr., who faces the task of shepherding the shaky economic recovery. Mr. 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 Mr. Biden to act quickly on a much larger relief plan.
The Coronavirus Outbreak ›
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