Eight months after Congress cut the first stimulus checks to help Americans absorb the shock of a pandemic-induced recession, it’s finally making plans for a second round. “We are going to stay right here, right here, until we are finished,” Senator Mitch McConnell, the majority leader, said on Thursday, “even if that means working through the weekend.”
How does the relief package differ from the first one Congress passed in March, and will it be enough to help workers, unemployed people and businesses weather the winter? Here’s what people are saying.
Inside the deal
A follow-up to the $2 trillion Cares Act, which was widely credited with staving off economic disaster, has been a long time coming. The House of Representatives twice passed relief packages — a $3.4 trillion one, the Heroes Act, in May and a scaled-back $2.2 trillion version in October — but both went nowhere in the Senate, where Republican members disputed the necessity and cost of additional aid.
As a compromise, the White House put its weight behind a $1.8 trillion deal in October that some Democrats felt was acceptable, but Nancy Pelosi, the House speaker, rejected it — possibly, the White House suggested, because she did not want to hand President Trump a legislative victory before the election — while Senate Republicans revolted against it.
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But with the last remnants of the Cares Act expiring at the end of December, and with the Georgia runoff elections that will determine control of the Senate taking place at the beginning of January, the delay has become untenable for both parties. The details are not yet final, but the package, spearheaded by a bipartisan group of senators, is reported to be a $900 billion proposal including the following provisions:
A second round of relief checks, of between $600 and $700 each, down from $1,200 in the Cares Act, with an additional $600 per child. The checks were not part of the initial deal, but Senators Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Josh Hawley of Missouri pushed for their inclusion by threatening to block government funding legislation.
$300 enhancement of weekly unemployment insurance benefits, down from the $600 enhancement that expired at the end of July.
$300 billion in small business aid.
$25 billion for emergency rental assistance, which will apply to both past and future rent payments.
An extension of the federal eviction moratorium to Jan. 31.
The proposal is also notable for what it doesn’t include: There is no liability shield to protect corporations against coronavirus-related lawsuits from workers, which McConnell had previously said was indispensable, nor is there aid to state and local governments, a major concession from Democrats.
The deal is expected to become law before next week, when Congress breaks for the holidays. For many Americans, the relief cannot come soon enough:
Nearly 8 million Americans have fallen into poverty since the summer, after the poverty rate declined in the spring because of the Cares Act.
One in eight adults do not have enough to eat. In households with children, that number is one in six.
Nearly 12 million renters will owe an estimated average $5,850 in back rent and utilities by January.
The New York Times