Pelosi predicts bipartisan passage of $2 trillion stimulus in House.
She said the House, which has been in recess for the past week with lawmakers scattered throughout the country, would consider the measure on a voice vote, so that members who wanted to register their positions could do so audibly on the House floor, and others who could not or did not want to return to Washington would not be obligated to cast a vote in person.
“I anticipate — I feel certain — that we will have a strong bipartisan vote,” Ms. Pelosi said at a news conference on Thursday morning.
The measure, the largest economic stimulus in modern American history, would send direct payments of $1,200 to Americans earning up to $75,000 — which would gradually phase out for higher earners and end for those with incomes more than $99,000 — and an additional $500 per child. It would substantially expand jobless aid, providing an additional 13 weeks and a four-month enhancement of benefits, extending them for the first time to freelancers and gig workers, and adding $600 per week on top of the usual payment.
The package also includes $350 billion in federally guaranteed loans to small businesses, and would establish a $500 billion government lending program for distressed companies reeling from the crisis, allowing the administration to take equity stakes in airlines that received aid to help compensate taxpayers. It would also send $100 billion to hospitals on the front lines of the pandemic.
Ms. Pelosi said it would not be the last effort by Congress to prop up the economy amid the coronavirus crisis. She said she did not “think we’ve seen the end of direct payments,” and she expressed frustration over funding for food stamps and the District of Columbia.
“There’s so many things we didn’t get in any of these bills,” Ms. Pelosi told reporters. Ticking off her wish list for another round of stimulus, the speaker said she wants to expand family and medical leave, add stronger occupational safety and health protections for workers, expanded safeguards for pensions, more money for the nutrition assistance program commonly known as food stamps, and funding for free treatment for those who test positive for coronavirus.
In New York, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said on Thursday that the congressional measure failed to meet the state’s needs, and called the bill “irresponsible” and “reckless.”
But Representative Kevin McCarthy, Republican of California and the minority leader, later told reporters that there was no rush for another package. “I wouldn’t be so quick to say you have to write something else,” he said. “Let’s let this bill work.”
Reference: NY Times
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