A new $908 billion bipartisan stimulus relief plan would include another round of extra unemployment benefits for Americans.
However, the plan would not include $600 weekly extra unemployment benefits such as those Americans received when the pandemic first hit. Instead, it would include $300 weekly extra unemployment benefits, according to The Washington Post.
The plan was proposed by a group of Democrats and Republicans in Congress who are eager to break the logjam over a second stimulus relief plan by the end of 2020. Many questions have led to the gridlock, which has gone on for months, including the overall size of the package and how much state and local aid it would contain. Democrats had wanted a plan worth a total of about $2.2 trillion, whereas Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell had said his members were unlikely to support more than $500 billion.
Here’s what you need to know:
The Bipartisan Plan Would Include an Extra $180 Billion for Unemployment Benefits
Today I’m announcing a bipartisan, bicameral framework for a COVID-19 relief package. This proposal would direct more than $900B to help small biz, healthcare providers, & unemployed Americans who need help now. It’s time to put politics aside & do what’s best for our country.
Unemployment benefits aren’t the only thing funded in the bipartisan plan but they would be funded to the tune of about $180 billion.
Democratic Senator Joe Manchin, who is often a key swing vote in Congress, is among those proposing the bipartisan plan.
“Today I’m announcing a bipartisan, bicameral framework for a COVID-19 relief package. This proposal would direct more than $900B to help small biz, healthcare providers, & unemployed Americans who need help now. It’s time to put politics aside & do what’s best for our country,” he wrote on Twitter.
In announcing the plan on December 1, Manchin also wrote, “It’s inexcusable for us to leave town and not have an agreement. We can – and must – work together in a bipartisan way. This framework for a COVID-19 relief package will help our small businesses, state and local governments, and hardworking Americans. It’s time to come together.”
Since that time, additional GOP senators have warmed up to the plan and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer have not dismissed it out of hand, although President Elect Joe Biden said in a December 4 news conference that he believed it should contain a second round of COVID-19 stimulus checks for the American people, which it currently does not.
‘Extreme Numbers’ of People Have Been Out of Work, an Expert Says
GettyThe United States Department of Labor Frances Perkins Building.
According to CBS, the new bipartisan plan would prioritize people who are out of work, whereas a counter proposal focused on giving relief to affected businesses.
“We’re still in situation where just under 19 million people are claiming benefits for the main unemployment programs,” said Andrew Stettner, an expert on unemployment benefits at The Century Foundation told CBS. “Extreme numbers of people have been out of work for a long time and thus are at the end of their rope.”
Other senators in the bipartisan group are Mitt Romney (R-UT), Bill Cassidy (R-LA), Susan Collins (R-ME), Maggie Hassan (D-NH), Angus King (I-ME), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), and Mark Warner (D-VA). House members of the Problem Solvers Caucus also supported the effort: Representatives Tom Reed (R-NY), Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ), Anthony Gonzalez (R-OH), Dusty Johnson (R-SD), Abigail Spanberger (D-VA), Dean Phillips (D-MN), and Fred Upton (R-MI).
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