FOLLOW US

Congress leaders on Sunday reached a deal on a $900 billion COVID-19 relief bill, a long-delayed effort to bolster an American healthcare capacity and economy hard-hit by the raging pandemic.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said the stimulus package will provide new federal aid to families, small businesses, and health-care institutions and is "packed with targeted policies that help struggling Americans who have already waited entirely too long."

“At long last, we have the bipartisan breakthrough the country has needed,” McConnell said on the Senate floor Sunday.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called the plan a “package that delivers urgently needed funds to save the lives and livelihoods of the American people as the virus accelerates.”

“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,” Pelosi said in a letter. “This emergency relief bill is an important initial step.”

Lawmakers are pushing to pass the relief and funding bill on Monday.

According to Pelosi and Schumer, the stimulus package includes direct payments of $600 to most adults and $600 per child.

While the legislative text of the agreement is yet to be released, here are some of the key provisions of the COVID-19 relief bill:

• Assistance for small businesses, including more than $284 billion for forgivable Paycheck Protection Program loans and $15 billion "in dedicated funding for live venues, independent movie theaters, and cultural institutions"
• Direct payments of $600 to most adults and $600 per child
• $300 per week for federal unemployment supplement
• $10 billion for child care aid
• $13 billion in increased Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and child nutrition benefits

While President Donald Trump’s signature will be on the law, its herculean implementation will be under the administration of President-elect Joe Biden, who is poised to be sworn in as U.S. president on January 20.

“I am heartened to see members of Congress heed that message, reach across the aisle, and work together,” Biden said in a statement. “But this action in the lame-duck session is just the beginning. Our work is far from over.”

Weeks ahead of inauguration day, Biden tweeted, “In one month, we begin to heal.”

Biden earlier vowed to get at least 100 million COVID-19 vaccine shots “into the arms of the American people” during his first 100 days in office.

Biden said his first months in office would change the course of the United States’ COVID-19 strategy, adding that he would make it a “national priority” to get children back to school during that time. He vowed to run “the most efficient mass vaccination plan in U.S. history.”