The House passed a $3 trillion coronavirus relief bill on Friday evening which would include a further round of stimulus payments of up to $1,200 per person. United States President Donald Trump has indicated that he would not back the bill.
Democrats passed the new coronavirus relief package narrowly through the House Friday that highlighted some discord within their ranks even as Republicans overwhelmingly voted against it in the midst of a veto threat from the Trump administration.
The bill was opposed by fourteen House Democrats, mainly progressives from GOP-leaning districts. One Republican, retiring New York Rep. Peter King, voted in favor of the bill that passed, 208 to 199.
The Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus Emergency Solutions Act, or the HEROES Act, would be larger than the four previous economic stimulus packages combined that Congress has approved since March to combat the coronavirus.
The bill, which would funnel billions into financially socked states and local governments and offer a second round of direct payments to millions of Americans, was panned by Republicans in the Senate and labeled by Trump as "dead on arrival."
The vote in the House came as unemployment increases to levels unprecedented since the Great Depression, with millions of Americans either out of jobs or forced on unpaid leaves.
The bill contains measures to benefit farmers, protect renters and homeowners from evictions and foreclosures, and expand protections for family and medical leave previously approved by Congress. The bill will also offers relief to critical workers, such as aviation, rail and Amtrak workers, and expand immigrant work visas.
Republicans are criticizing weak House Democrats for endorsing a bill "with an incredible $3 trillion price tag" which contains "far left ideas such as stimulus checks for illegal immigrants."
The bill's expansion of direct compensation to individuals included in an earlier relief program would allow undocumented residents to be paid. Some endangered Democrats voted for an unsuccessful GOP attempt to send the measure back to committee to take down the provision.
Meanwhile, there was some positive news on Friday: The number of new confirmed cases of coronavirus in the U.S. has dropped in recent days, the Times announced.
In New York, the number has dropped over the last month, and counts of cases have plummeted into hard-hit Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Several states are seeing barely any new cases at all, including Vermont, Hawaii and Alaska, the newspaper reported.
Nevertheless, only about 3 percent of the population has been checked, with so far more than 1.4 million cases. And, as the U.S. death toll eclipsed 87,000 on Saturday, the Times announced, more than 1,000 Americans have died from COVID-19 almost every day this past week.
