The House has passed the $1.9 trillion relief package by a vote of 220-211, a bill that includes $1,400 checks to Americans, an unemployment extension, and billions of funding for non-profits and small businesses.
H.R. 1319 gives $1,400 checks to individuals earning under $75,000. Also included is $350 billion for local and state governments, almost $130 billion for K-12 schools and $40 billion for colleges.
More than $75 billion was given for testing and vaccine rollout support, including hospital funding and biomedical research.
The bill also gives $800 million for the purchase of U.S. food products, $270 million to the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Endowment for the Arts, $200 million for libraries, $200 million for “worker protection enforcement” and $175 million to public broadcasting.
Before the passing of the measure, Biden’s press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters that President Biden believed the bill would quickly pass and would quickly sign it into law.
“With today’s passage of the relief plan, I can say that President Biden will sign the bill on Friday afternoon,” Psaki stated during a press briefing.
“We expect the bill to arrive here on Thursday and then President Biden will sign it sometime Friday,” she said. “We are moving at full speed on implementing the bill, because we understand that Americans need assistance and need it soon.”
