Congress agrees on $900 billion COVID-19 relief package [Video]

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:

• Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced on Sunday that Congress has agreed to pass a $900 million COVID-19 relief plan.
• Top Democrat lawmakers Sen. Chuck Schumer (NY.) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (CA.) also confirmed McConnell’s announcement.
• Both chambers of Congress are set to vote on the package on Monday.

On Sunday, the US Congress finally made a consensus on the second wave of COVID-19 relief package amounting to $900 billion. Roughly 66 percent of this aid will be in the form of stimulus checks to be given to Americans.

In his address on the Senate floor, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY.) said “More help is on the way,” adding that legislators were just finalizing the details of the proposal to “avoid any last-minute obstacles.”

Under the new COVID-19 financial aid, unemployed Americans would receive weekly supplemental payments of $300 while individuals with an annual income of $75,000 and below would receive a one time aid of $600.

The new package also involves financial reinforcements for affected businesses, schools, health-care providers, and struggling tenants.

In a joint statement, top Democrat lawmakers Senate Minority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer (NY.) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (CA.) also echoed McConnell’s announcement.

“Today, we have reached an agreement with Republicans and the White House on an emergency coronavirus relief and omnibus package that delivers urgently needed funds to save the lives and livelihoods of the American people as the virus accelerates.”

“We are going to crush the virus and put money in the pockets of the American people,” they added.

Both Schumer and Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA.) have worked together to overcome the agreement hurdles of the measure. The roller-coaster ride of reaching a COVID-19 financial plan is expected to come to an end.

Toomey was seeking to exclude the Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve on reestablishing emergency lending assistance to municipal, medium-sized and municipal businesses.

Toomey said on Sunday that he would definitely support the proposed aid as lawmakers were polishing the bill’s “language.”

President Donald Trump also expressed the need to provide another package, tweeting: “GET IT DONE, and give them [Americans] more money in direct payments.”

The bicameral legislature would put a vote on the package on Monday.

The proposal came as the US has recorded almost 317,000 COVID-19 deaths while the economy endures surviving.

Source: New York Post