US Senate approved Biden’s $ 1.9 trillion economic plan to deal with pandemic devastation

U.S. Senators have approved the $ 1.9 trillion stimulus package pushed by Joe Biden in a marathon session.

Democrats voted to pass the bill without Republican support after a nearly 24-hour session.Although it will now be up to the House of Representatives to reconsider the overall package before it becomes law and aid can be dispersed.

The approval of the measure by the Senate It was a quick victory for Biden and his Democratic allies in Congress, who pledged after the 2020 presidential election to authorize a solid package of new coronavirus aid. – including another round of spot checks for families – as one of their first acts. But a prolonged confrontation between centrists and progressives within the Democratic caucus has quickly served to illustrate the precarious politics of the party’s slim majority in the second round in the Senate, where even resistance can jeopardize the economic agenda of Democrats in the early days. days of the Biden presidency.

The most striking measure of the package is new direct payments of $ 1,400 to taxpayers with incomes of less than $ 80,000 annually per person or 160,000 per couple. Likewise, the plan includes a $ 350,000 million bailout for state and local governments, $ 20 billion for a national immunization plan and another 50,000 for the covid-19 screening system, in addition to extending up to on September 6, unemployment benefits, which expire on March 14.

The bailout also includes funds for airlines, local transportation systems and the rail network, as well as food programs, rental aid or funding for the reopening of schools.

Biden’s original proposal called for an increase to $ 15 an hour in the federal minimum wage, which is currently $ 7.25 an hour since 2007, but that point has not garnered enough support.

The Republican opposition is strongly opposed to the bailout, believing it to be “excessively expensive” and too early to approve it, given that the funds for the stimulus package launched in December are still being collected. disbursement.

For this reason, the Conservatives have tried to hamper the approval process as much as possible and promote the marathon of votes on amendments in which the Senate is now immersed.

Among the proposals that failed early mornings and mornings in the upper house was one to deny funds to schools for transgender teenage girls to participate in women’s sports programs and another to withhold approval of the law with the aim of adding funds to deal with the boom in migrants at the border with Mexico.

On Friday, Biden insisted the plan had to be approved without delay, tempering enthusiasm over the good performance in employment figures. It is a device “absolutely essential to turn the situation around, get children back to school safely, provide a lifeline for small businesses and defeat COVID-19,” the president said.

A total of 379,000 jobs were created in February and the unemployment rate edged down to 6.2%. But “at this rate, it will take two years” to return to the pre-pandemic level, warned the president. Currently, 18 million Americans receive a benefit after losing their jobs or much of their monthly income.

The new hires in February were recorded mainly in bars and restaurants, hard hit by the restrictions put in place during the pandemic. Other activities related to recreation and accommodation, as well as health services, retail and manufacturing also registered new hires last month. These figures suggest that the worst of the crisis is over and that businessmen seem to be focusing on the economic “mini boom” expected in the Boreal Spring.

The vaccination campaign is progressing, and massive public aid – in addition to decreasing spending – is putting money into Americans’ bank accounts, so a significant increase in consumption is expected.

According to Biden, the positive jobs numbers are certainly the product of the $ 900 billion stimulus package approved in late December and enacted by his predecessor Donald Trump. But without new help “everything will slow down again”, said the president.. “You cannot take one step forward and two steps back,” he added.

His $ 1.9 trillion plan would be the third exceptional aid package approved by Congress since the start of the pandemic.

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