Coronavirus: US House passes $4.3 trillion crisis relief Bill

Heroes Act pushed through, largely along party lines; fate uncertain in Senate

People waiting in line to receive a food bank donation at the Barclays Centre in Brooklyn, New York City on Friday. More than 36 million Americans have lost their jobs due to the coronavirus catastrophe and related business lockdown.
People waiting in line to receive a food bank donation at the Barclays Centre in Brooklyn, New York City on Friday. More than 36 million Americans have lost their jobs due to the coronavirus catastrophe and related business lockdown. PHOTO: AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

WASHINGTON • House Democrats have narrowly pushed through the largest ever United States economic rescue package, but the coronavirus measure faces headwinds in the White House and Senate where Republicans bemoan its US$3 trillion (S$4.3 trillion) price tag.

The Heroes Act, which passed on Friday largely along party lines, provides some US$1 trillion to state and local governments, another round of cash disbursements to millions of hard-hit American families, funds for hospitals, hazard pay for health workers and relief for devastated small businesses.

In an attempt to counter the pandemic's devastating economic fallout, the 1,815-page measure would also extend food and unemployment aid; provide rent and mortgage support for struggling households; and pump billions of dollars into virus testing, tracing operations and treatment.

"We think this is a major investment in the lives of the American people and in the budgets of our states and localities," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said.

More than 36 million Americans have lost their jobs due to the coronavirus catastrophe and related business lockdown.

"They're suffering so much, in so many ways," Mrs Pelosi said. "We want to lessen the pain for them."

In a sign that the pandemic has jumbled Capitol Hill's routines, the House also passed a rules change that would allow remote voting by proxy for the first time in the chamber's 231-year history.

The legislation, which cleared the House on a vote of 208 to 199, with 14 Democrats and all but one Republican opposed, appears doomed in the Senate.

Many Republicans branded it an exorbitant liberal wish list packed with Democratic priorities such as funding for vote-by-mail programmes or marijuana studies and emergency checks for undocumented immigrants.

"It's not a stretch to say that this Bill is nothing more than a Democratic policy agenda masquerading as a response to the coronavirus crisis," House Republican Tom Cole told colleagues.

"The Pelosi package will never see the light of day in the Senate," Mr Lindsey Graham, a Republican senator, added on Twitter after the House vote.

In the Republican-controlled chamber, "we will work with the Trump Administration to jump-start the economy and fund efforts to defeat Covid-19".

Senate leaders have expressed opposition to moving swiftly with a new tranche of relief, saying they preferred more time to study how the previous aid measures have helped American communities.

President Donald Trump has already signed four pandemic relief measures into law. They include a US$2.2 trillion package in March and a US$483 billion measure to pump additional funds into a loan programme for hard-hit small businesses.

Mrs Pelosi has said the latest Bill is effectively an opening offer, and she expects Republicans to join Democrats in negotiating a compromise.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Sunday Times on May 17, 2020, with the headline Coronavirus: US House passes $4.3 trillion crisis relief Bill. Subscribe