(Photo: CORRECTING NAME OF ACT/REUTERS/Tom Brenner/REFILE)
The U.S. House of Representatives is set to unveil Tuesday the new multi-trillion-dollar CARES 2 (Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act 2), which will provide more money for medical providers, small businesses, workers and families hard hit by the raging COVID-19 pandemic.
Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) has said a House vote might be possible as soon as Friday. CARES 2 will be the fifth legislative response to COVID-19 -- and the largest -- if Democrats have their way.
Spearheaded by Democrats, CARES 2 will largely be similar to the first CARES Act enacted March 27. The original CARES Act provided $500 billion in direct payments to Americans. It also set aside $208 billion in loans to major industries and $300 billion in Small Business Administration loans.
The CARES Act also included a $1,200 stimulus check and expanded unemployment benefits that provide an additional $600 weekly payment. After bipartisan negotiations, the total bill grew to $2.2 trillion in the version unanimously passed by the Senate on March 25 and signed into law two days later.
On the other hand, CARES 2 is expected to provide more than $2.2 trillion in financial assistance. Some pundits expect it to top $4 trillion.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) urges her party mates to think big when proposing additional spending that will help American families and small business ride out the COVID-19 economic slowdown that led to 30 million Americans losing their jobs in only six weeks.
"The Chair of the Federal Reserve Bank has told us to 'Think Big' because interest rates are so low," wrote Pelosi to Democrats in a Mother's Day message. "We must 'Think Big' For The People now because if we don't, it will cost more later. Not acting is the most expensive course."
House Republicans are expected to put up a token fight against the Democrats before caving, given the enormity of the economic damage already wrought on the economy by the pandemic. GOP leaders said they'd prefer to wait for a few weeks to gauge the effectiveness of the previous rounds of relief before launching another.
"I don't think we have yet felt the urgency of acting immediately," said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY).
A bitter fight is expected over funding for state and local governments hardest hit by the pandemic. This assistance is the single largest line-item in CARES 2.
Ballooning expenses on medical frontliners combined with massive cuts in state tax revenues is threatening the jobs of the frontliners, which consist of police officers, 911 dispatchers, and medical workers, among others.
Their Democrats CARES 2 bill is expected to include three separate buckets of local government funding. One will be for states, another for counties, and yet another for municipalities said Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Nita Lowey (D-NY). The total cost will come to $1 trillion. Senate Republicans oppose state-aid spending, claiming it will bail-out governors for self-inflicted budget problems that preceded the pandemic.
CARES 2 will provide billions more for testing on top of the $25 billion in the Democrat's previous "interim" coronavirus bill.
"The sooner we can identify the scale of this problem with the testing, testing, testing, tracing, [and] treatment, the sooner we'll be able to open up our economy," said Pelosi. "Not to do that is to prolong this."
