Congress has reached an agreement for a second stimulus package totaling $900 billion in COVID-19 relief.
The agreement, which critics said was long-overdue will send most Americans a $600 stimulus check, which is half the amount of the first $1200 stimulus payment sent out in March at the beginning of the pandemic.
The deal also centers around enhanced federal unemployment benefits like $300 per week for the next 11 weeks.
The plan also sets aside money for businesses, schools, health care and renters who are facing evictions due to economic loss during the pandemic.
Meanwhile, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi delivered remarks on the Floor of the House of Representatives in support of the bipartisan agreement on the emergency coronavirus relief and omnibus package.
“We can accept the short-term because we’ll have a new president during the length of that moratorium to extend it further, if necessary. We also have in the legislation direct payments, which were not in the Republican bill – to America’s working families. I would like them to have been bigger, but they are significant and they will be going out soon,” said Pelosi.
Pelosi said the relief package would include $82 billion for local schools, colleges and universities, $25 billion in rental assistance, $15 billion for theaters and other live venues, and $10 billion for child care.
$600 stimulus checks are expected to reach Americans in January 2021.
“The President may insist on having his name on the check, but make no mistake, those checks are from the American people. The American peoples’ name should be on that check, no individual, because that is the source of the resources for those checks: tax-paying Americans,” Pelosi added.
