House Speaker Nancy Pelosi hailed Covid’s massive $ 1.9 trillion relief bill as “historic” and “transformative” as the House positioned itself to give final approval of the legislation with a vote Wednesday morning.
Joe Biden, who will mark a year since the pandemic caused nationwide shutdowns with a prime-time speech on Thursday, said he will sign the bill as soon as it lands on his desk.
The House vote on the bill, which includes checks for most American families, comes after the Senate passed a modestly overhauled version of the package on Saturday and will win Biden’s most significant initial legislative achievement.
“It is a remarkable, historic and transformative piece of legislation that goes a long way to crushing the virus and solving our economic crisis,” said Pelosi during a press conference with Democrats on Tuesday afternoon, who took turns to exalt what they said was the historical nature of legislation and its impact on poverty reduction in America. “I’m so excited, I just can’t hide it,” she added.
Several Democratic leaders compared it to the passing of the Affordable Care Act, saying the plan would not only “crush” the virus and the economic consequences, but would seek to address long-standing racial and gender inequalities in the economy.
Smiling under his mask, Pelosi expressed full confidence that the Democrats had votes to approve the bill.
Asked about possible defections by progressive members disappointed that the Senate had reduced a version of the bill, initially proposed by Biden and approved by the House, Pelosi shook his head and said “no” repeatedly. The bill will move to Biden’s desk after the vote on Wednesday, she said.
In addition to the new round of stimulus checks, the project also extends emergency unemployment benefits until early September, instead of March 14. They spend huge sums on Covid-19 vaccines, tests and treatments, while helping state and local governments and schools, assisting small businesses and providing large expansions of tax incentives and programs for low- and middle-income families.
Progressives have suffered setbacks, especially the removal of the Senate from a gradual increase in the minimum wage to $ 15 an hour by 2025. But the measure carries so many Democratic priorities that final approval was not in doubt, despite the narrow 10-vote majority of the broken in the Chamber.
Meanwhile, a large majority of Americans – 70% – claim to be in favor of the coronavirus relief package. Only a third of Americans said the legislation is very expensive, according to a survey by Pew Research.
Biden said he would not attach his signature to the $ 1,400 exemption checks due soon, a break with his predecessor, who last year printed “President Donald J Trump” on Congressionally approved economic impact payments.
The next round of paper checks will be signed by a career official in the Treasury Department’s Tax Services Department, White House press secretary Jen Psaki told a news conference on Tuesday.
Psaki said the goal was to get payments out quickly, instead of marking them as coming from Biden.
“It’s not about him, it’s about the American people getting relief,” said Psaki.