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THE DEBATE over America’s second big round of fiscal stimulus to ameliorate the economic fallout from covid-19 began seven months ago. In May Democrats passed a bill containing their opening bid through the House of Representatives a gargantuan $3.4trn package. Negotiations with the Republican-controlled Senate and the Trump administration have been stuck since then. They remained stuck as a second wave of infections crested in the summer, as support for unemployment benefits in the first package (called the CARES Act) expired in August, and even as Americans voted for a president while a third, winter wave began to build.
December 21, 2020
Washington, DC (IARN) The voting should happen later tonight (Monday, December 21st) on the new economic stimulus bill.
The 5,593 page-bill contains both the stimulus package and the omnibus funding bill. The omnibus bill doles out $1.4 trillion in funding and the coronavirus relief package is to be 900 billion dollars’ worth of relief.
On Monday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said, “Yesterday, leaders in the Senate, House, and the Secretary of Treasury reached a major agreement that struggling Americans have needed for months,” McConnell says. “We’re going to pass another historic rescue package to help American families through this pandemic.”
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Marica Kumayama Petrey at her home in Oakland on Dec. 19, 2020. Petrey, a film producer and musician, has had much of her work stop this year due to the coronavirus pandemic. (Photo by Anne Wernikoff for CalMatters)
Marica Kumayama Petrey had put eight months of pre-production work into the live debut for her first album with a new pop/rock band, Girl Swallows Nightingale, planned for March. She was also scheduled to wrap up filming her first feature film, “Kaneko’s Owl,” this summer.
All of that’s been put on hold by the coronavirus pandemic, and she doesn’t expect to ever play the debut show she spent so many months preparing. Still, she said she considers herself fortunate because she could use her video editing skills to pick up other gigs this year and spend the time writing her next album.
Photo illustration of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (Getty, iStock)
As part of Congress’ $900 billion pandemic aid package approved Monday, $15 billion was dedicated for “live venues, independent movie theaters, and cultural institutions.”
The $325 billion in funding carved out for all small businesses represents the largest component of the package, more than the funds allocated to direct payment checks and unemployment benefits combined. That includes more than $284 billion for another round of forgivable Payment Protection Program loans.
(See the full bill 5,600-page here. Provisions for PPP and other small business support begin on page 2,042.)
Taking the vaccine from a vial into the arm of millions of Americans is one of the biggest operational challenges the United States has ever faced, Biden said during remarks in Wilmington, Delaware. In the meantime, the pandemic rages on. Experts think it could get worse before it gets better.
U.S. health officials have repeatedly said they hope to vaccinate at least 20 million Americans by the end of the year. As of Monday, more than 4.6 million vaccine doses have been distributed across the U.S. and at least 614,117 people have gotten their first shots, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.