House and Senate pass $900 billion stimulus deal

·Reporter

December 21, 2020 at 11:44 PM·4 min read

The House and Senate passed a $900 billion coronavirus stimulus package on Monday night after Democratic and Republican leaders reached a last-minute relief deal on Sunday, ending a months-long gridlock in negotiations.

The Republican-controlled Senate voted 92-to-6 to pass the stimulus bill. Earlier on Monday, the Democratic-controlled House voted 359-to-53 to pass the legislation. The stimulus package was attached to the $1.4 trillion omnibus spending bill that will keep the government running. It will now be sent to the president to be signed.

“To safely enter the economy and our schools, we must crush the virus,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said from the House floor on Monday night. “That's why we can support this bill. It doesn't go all the way, but it takes us down the path — a first step.”

The deal comes after months of negotiations for the next phase of government aid and days before key relief provisions under the CARES Act and from executive actions are set to expire.

U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) elbow bumps Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) at a Friends of Ireland luncheon on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., March 12, 2020. REUTERS/Tom Brenner

The $900 billion stimulus deal includes $600 stimulus checks, extending two federal unemployment programs, and an additional weekly payment of $300 in jobless benefits, and another round of the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP).

Also included are money for vaccine distribution, funding for schools, $25 billion in rental assistance, an extension of the eviction moratorium, $13 billion in food assistance, and $7 billion to increase access to broadband.

What’s left out of the new deal is aid for state and local governments and liability protections for businesses — both key sticking points in earlier negotiations. Democrats called the liability protection a “poison pill,” while the GOP characterized the state and local aid as a “blue state bailout.”

The price tag of the stimulus package has significantly decreased since lawmakers began negotiating the second stimulus deal in July.

Democrats came to the table with their $3.4 trillion HEROES Act, while the GOP came up with a $1 trillion HEALS Act during the summer. Many of the provisions in these two proposals have been trimmed or left out. The White House was also active in the negotiations and its stimulus proposal reached around $1.9 trillion before the election.

‘If negotiations had started in earnest after the election’

The deal came after four Congressional leaders — known as the “four corners” — Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) had a series of meetings last week to discuss the stimulus deal. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, who has been representing the White House in talks, also joined the discussions.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) sit together during a Congressional Gold Medal Award ceremony for Steve Gleason at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, U.S., January 15, 2020. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts

With Republican and Democratic leaders releasing the text of the bill on Monday and putting it for a vote soon after, lawmakers had little time to review the over 5,500-page text. Lawmakers expressed concern about the short window they had to review the legislation.

“It’s over 5,000 pages, arrived at 2pm today, and we are told to expect a vote on it in 2 hours,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) said in a tweet on Monday. “This isn’t governance. It’s hostage-taking.”

Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) also criticized the little time lawmakers had to review the bill. “It is almost 5,600 pages long and we’re expected to vote on it tonight,” he said in a statement on Monday.

While lawmakers closed final disagreements on Sunday, other issues may appear after the deal is carefully reviewed, according to Mark Harkins, a former congressional staffer and senior fellow at Georgetown’s Government Affairs Institute.

“When smelly bits undoubtedly rise to the surface over the next few weeks, this episode will not be looked on favorably,” he told Yahoo Money. “All this could have been avoided if negotiations had started in earnest after the election and the president had taken even a modicum of interest in the process.”

Denitsa is a writer for Yahoo Finance and Cashay, a new personal finance website. Follow her on Twitter @denitsa_tsekova.

Read more:

Follow Yahoo Finance on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Flipboard, SmartNews, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Reddit

Associated Press
Isolated Chicago communities secure money for a coveted transit project before Trump takes office
Adella Bass dropped her in-person college classes because it was just too hard to get there from the far South Side of Chicago, where the city's famous elevated train doesn't run. The Biden administration notified Congress last week that it would commit $1.9 billion toward a nearly $5.7 billion project to add four new L stations on the South Side, the Chicago system’s largest expansion project in history. The pledge, which the Federal Transit Administration is expected to formally sign before President Joe Biden leaves office in January, essentially locks in current and future funding.
AFP
Minorities fear targeted attacks in post-revolution Bangladesh
For generations, the small Hindu temple outside the capital in Muslim-majority Bangladesh was a quiet place to pray -- before arsonists ripped open its roof this month in the latest post-revolution unrest."My son saw the flames and doused them quickly," said temple custodian Ratan Kumar Ghosh, 55, describing how assailants knew to avoid security cameras, so they tore its tin roof open to enter.
Associated Press
Winter is hitting Gaza and many Palestinians have little protection from the cold
Winter is hitting the Gaza Strip and many of the nearly 2 million Palestinians displaced by the devastating 14-month war with Israel are struggling to protect themselves from the wind, cold and rain. There is a shortage of blankets and warm clothing, little wood for fires, and the tents and patched-together tarps families are living in have grown increasingly threadbare after months of heavy use, according to aid workers and residents. Shadia Aiyada, who was displaced from the southern city of Rafah to the coastal area of Muwasi, has only one blanket and a hot water bottle to keep her eight children from shivering inside their fragile tent.
CBS News
NYPD chief resigns amid sexual misconduct claims
NYPD Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey has resigned following allegations of sexual misconduct, the department says.
Associated Press
As flooding becomes a yearly disaster in South Sudan, thousands survive on the edge of a canal
Long-horned cattle wade through flooded lands and climb a slope along a canal that has become a refuge for displaced families in South Sudan. “Too much suffering,” said Bichiok Hoth Chuiny, a woman in her 70s. Such flooding is becoming a yearly disaster in South Sudan, which the World Bank has described as “the world’s most vulnerable country to climate change and also the one most lacking in coping capacity."
CNN
Two US Navy pilots eject safely over Red Sea after fighter jet shot down in apparent friendly fire incident
Two US Navy pilots ejected safely after their fighter jet was shot down over the Red Sea on Saturday in an apparent friendly fire incident, US Central Command said in a statement.
AFP
Iraq's prohibition zeal threatens Baghdad's boozy subculture
The smell of dampness rises through the dust at a private club in central Baghdad, one of many shut in a crackdown on alcohol sales in Iraq.Several private "social" clubs that have operated in Baghdad for decades were sent official letters in November forbidding them from manufacturing and serving alcoholic beverages.
Associated Press
Two US Navy pilots shot down over Red Sea in apparent 'friendly fire' incident, US military says
Two U.S. Navy pilots were shot down Sunday over the Red Sea in an apparent “friendly fire” incident, the U.S military said, marking the most serious incident to threaten troops in over a year of America targeting Yemen's Houthi rebels. The U.S. military had conducted airstrikes targeting Yemen’s Houthi rebels at the time, though the U.S. military’s Central Command did not elaborate on what their mission was and did not immediately respond to questions from The Associated Press.
AFP
Tunisia women herb harvesters struggle with drought and heat
On a hillside in Tunisia's northwestern highlands, women scour a sun-scorched field for the wild herbs they rely on for their livelihoods, but droughts and rising temperatures are making it ever harder to find the precious plants.Wildfires fuelled by drought and rising temperatures have ravaged these woodlands, further diminishing the natural resources that women like Soudani depend on.
AFP
Trump threatens to take back control of Panama Canal
Incoming US president Donald Trump on Saturday slammed what he called unfair fees for US ships passing through the Panama Canal and threatened to demand control of the waterway be returned to Washington.He continued that if Panama could not ensure "the secure, efficient and reliable operation" of the channel, "then we will demand that the Panama Canal be returned to us, in full, and without question."
Politico
Trump taps billionaire Houston Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta as Italy ambassador
Fertitta has never held political office but is a longtime GOP donor — including to Trump’s Save America PAC.
Associated Press
The water was their livelihood. Now Thailand's sea nomads work to preserve a vanishing way of life
When Hook was a child, he started his days by jumping off the boat that his family lived on and into the ocean. Now Hook, whose full name is Suriyan Klathale, lives on land like the rest of his community, a people known as the Moken. The recollections of his childhood, which many Moken of his generation still have, are mostly just memories.
Associated Press
Fleeing motorist is dead after driving into Texas shopping mall and injuring 5
A fleeing motorist drove a pickup truck into a busy JCPenney store in Texas on Saturday, injuring five people before he was fatally shot by law enforcement, authorities said. Four of the injured people were taken from the Killeen mall to hospitals and the fifth went on their own, Sgt. Bryan Washko of the Texas Department of Public Safety said in an evening media briefing. Ofelia Miramontez of the Killeen Police Department said the incident began with calls about an erratic driver in a black pickup in Belton, about 20 miles (30 kilometers) away.
Reuters
Trump says he might demand Panama hand over canal
President-elect Donald Trump on Saturday accused Panama of charging excessive rates for use of the Panama Canal and said that if Panama did not manage the canal in an acceptable fashion, he would demand the U.S. ally hand it over. In an evening post on Truth Social, Trump also warned he would not let the canal fall into the "wrong hands," and he seemed to warn of potential Chinese influence on the passage, writing the canal should not be managed by China. It also underlines an expected shift in U.S. diplomacy under Trump, who has not historically shied away from threatening allies and using bellicose rhetoric when dealing with counterparts.
AFP
In ruined homes, Palestinians recall Assad's torture
School lessons ended in Syria's biggest Palestinian refugee camp on October 18, 2012, judging by the date still chalked up on the board more than a decade later.According to the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, at the start of Syria's conflict in 2011 it was home to 160,000 registered refugees.
CNN
How a teenager’s holiday romance led to prison time in Dubai
British citizen Marcus Fakana, 18, is facing a one-year prison sentence for his summer romance with a London teenager, 17, who he met while on holiday in the United Arab Emirates.
Politico
Biden could foil Trump’s plans to resume federal executions
The president is considering using his clemency power to convert federal death sentences to life in prison.
NBC News
Lara Trump says she's removed her name from contention to be Florida's senator
Lara Trump, President-elect Donald Trump's daughter-in-law, said on Saturday that she decided to remove her name from consideration to be a senator in Florida.
AFP
India's architecture fans guard Mumbai's Art Deco past
A towering cinema with a roofline like an ocean liner stands out in India's financial capital Mumbai, part of a remarkable Art Deco architectural heritage that campaigners say needs protection.Architects used geometric patterns and streamlined structures to evoke the popular technologies of the time, including airplanes and ocean liners.
Politico
Trump threatens to retake Panama Canal
The U.S. ceded control of the canal to Panama in 1999 pursuant to a Carter administration treaty

‘If negotiations had started in earnest after the election’

Latest Stories