Stimulus Update: House Passes $1.9 Trillion Package; Now Goes To Senate

The U.S. House passed President Joe Biden’s COVID-19 pandemic relief bill, which will allot $1.9 trillion to various pandemic-related remedies like stimulus checks, unemployment and vaccine aid, a report from ABC News said.

This comes as the party has been assuring progressives that the $15 minimum wage idea would be revived later after being nixed recently.

The bill passed almost entirely along party lines, with a 219-212 vote. The measure will now be shipped to the Senate. There, Democrats plan to revive the minimum wage push. Fights might also break out over things like state aid.

The party line has been divided predictably between both parties.

Democrats say the package, which will get needed cash aid to individuals, businesses, states and cities, is comprised of essential, decisive actions. Meanwhile, Republicans decried the expensive price tag coming with the bill, saying that there were too many “gifts” for Democratic causes like labor unions and Democratic-run states.

The only lawmakers to cross party lines were moderate Democratic Reps. Jared Golden of Maine and Kurt Schrader of Oregon, the report says. The bill, as it moves through Congress, will serve as a test over whether voters will approve of more trillions spent on COVID relief, as well as whether Biden can hold the Democratic Party together as Congressional majority remains razor-thin.

As the pandemic continues, nearing a year now, the last stimulus $600 checks were able to provide a 10 percent bump in income in January, PYMNTS writes.

The checks, approved in the final days of 2020, lifted the income increase from a more meager 0.6 rise in December.

Disposable personal income is calculated by subtracting income taxes, and it was up 11.4 percent after January this year. Stimulus checks accounted for $1.6 trillion of the $1.9 trillion increase, the report says.

According to PYMNTS, the Commerce Department also showed a 2.4 percent increase in consumer spending, and outlays for goods were widely exceeding services.