House Democrats Unveil Coronavirus Rescue Bill That Would Direct More Than $3 Trillion To States, Individuals, Health Systems

House Democrats unveiled a coronavirus rescue bill Tuesday that would direct more than $3 trillion for state and local governments, health systems, a second round of stimulus checks, and a range of other priorities.

Republicans rejected the legislation even before they saw it as a liberal wish list that would go nowhere in the Republican-led Senate, where Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said he was at work on crafting liability protections for businesses instead.

The massive new bill Democratic bill was assembled by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and her top lieutenants without input from Republicans or the Trump administration. It’s less an opening bid in a bipartisan negotiation than an expression of House Democrats’ priorities that they hope will resonate with the public as the nation suffers through the worst economic calamity since the Great Depression. The U.S. economy lost 20.5 million jobs in April, pushing the unemployment rate up to 14.7%. Many experts believe the rate will go even higher in the coming months.

The legislation, which the House is expected to vote on Friday, would devote nearly $1 trillion to state, local, territorial and tribal governments and establish a $200 billion “Heroes Fund” to extend hazard pay to essential workers. It would also send a second – and larger – round of direct payments to individual Americans, up to $6,000 per household. Other parts of the bill would increase nutrition assistance benefits by 15% and provide $175 billion in housing assistance, among other things.

It would be Congress’ fifth coronavirus relief bill, building on the $2 trillion Cares Act passed in late March. But while the first four bills were the result of urgent bipartisan compromise in the early days of the pandemic, now the two sides aren’t even talking and are moving in radically different directions. It’s unclear when they will come together to produce another bipartisan response.

(c) 2020, The Washington Post · Erica Werner  

{Matzav.com}