US House panel votes to advance 1.9 trln COVID-19 relief package Xinhua | Updated: 2021-02-23 10:39 Chairman of the House Budget Committee John Yarmuth. [Photo/Agencies] WASHINGTON - The US House Budget Committee on Monday voted to move forward President Joe Biden's $1.9-trillion COVID-19 relief package, setting up a vote in the full House later this week. The House panel approved the relief package, also known as the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, by a vote of 19-16 largely along party lines. "We are in a race against time. Aggressive, bold action is needed before our nation is more deeply and permanently scarred by the human and economic costs of inaction," John Yarmuth, chairman of the House Budget Committee and a Democrat from Kentucky, said Monday before the vote.