WASHINGTON — It appears Democrats and Republicans have finally reached an agreement on the second round of the coronavirus pandemic economic relief. All signs point to Congress passing a roughly $900 billion relief package.
The negotiations have gone on since the end of the summer. Both sides have fought from the summer through the election to determine what should and shouldn’t be in this package. All the while the pandemic economic crisis worsened.
With an agreement-reportedly in place, we wanted to give you the three big things that are in the package.
Our Sources:
The Office of the Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi.
What We Found:
It will include individual checks for Americans. All Americans who earned $75,000 or less last year will receive a $600 check. Those making more than $75,000 will receive a lesser amount based on just how much they make. American families will also receive $600 per child.
It expands pandemic unemployment benefits. The bill will add an extra $300 a week to unemployment benefits. This will last for 11 weeks.
The bill extends the Payroll Protection Program for small businesses. This is the program that gave small businesses forgivable loans if they kept employees through the pandemic rather than fire them. The bill adds $300 billion to this.
Those are just the three big pieces.
The relief package includes several employment and economic stimulus relief opportunities. It also gives billions of dollars to fighting coronavirus. The bill would offer $20 billion to create vaccines and $8 billion for the distribution of vaccines. It also offers more money for testing.