By State House News Service
A very divided U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday debated and passed a $1.9 trillion package that is expected to funnel billions of dollars to Massachusetts for state and local government aid, education and transportation funding, and direct payments to more than three million families.
Passage of the American Rescue Act that will provide state governments with direct federal aid for the first time since the pandemic began happened on the one-year anniversary of Gov. Charlie Baker declaring a state of emergency around the coronavirus that has since gone on to kill more than 16,000 people here and infect almost 550,000 others.