The United States Congress has complied with the procedure this Monday and has approved by an overwhelming majority the economic aid project against the coronavirus valued at almost 900,000 million dollars (more than 735,000 million euros), after the previous agreement reached on Sunday of a law, which must now be signed by the president, Donald Trump.
The agreement includes financial aid of up to $ 600 (490 euros) depending on the recipient’s income, and an unemployment bonus of up to $ 300 (245 euros) per week, as well as an item of $ 284 billion ($ 232 billion). euros) so that companies and businesses affected by the crisis of the pandemic can face rents and the payroll of their workers.
In turn, 82,000 million dollars (about 67,000 million euros) have been allocated for payments to universities and schools, in addition to another 25,000 million dollars (about 20,500 million euros) for the payment of rents and mortgages, and 69,000 million dollars (almost 56,500 million euros) for the purchase and distribution of vaccines against the coronavirus, details the NBC chain.
“The Senate has just approved another important bipartisan aid package, against COVID-19,” the Republican majority leader in the chamber, Mitch McConnell, celebrated on his Twitter account, adding that “the American people may be I’m sure more help is on the way. “
Finally, the law has been endorsed in the House of Representatives by 359 votes in favor and 53 against, while in the Senate only six opposed, compared to 92 who voted in favor.
AGREEMENT AFTER SEVERAL MONTHS OF DISABILITIES
Negotiations had been broken on several occasions in recent months in relation to various aspects of the agreement, such as the amount of individual unemployment checks, which put the stability of millions of workers at risk, who would lose aid on December 26 economic emergency set last March.
This economic aid package, which will be debated again after the end of the year, has finally left out the Republican requests to financially protect the private sector from possible demands related to its decision-making during the crisis of the pandemic.
However, the agreement has not reached many state and local governments either, who have lamented the loss of almost 1.4 billion dollars (1.15 billion euros) to distribute between their education and public health systems.
The leader of the Democratic minority in the Senate, Chuck Schumer, has criticized the Republicans on Monday before the vote, and has assured that “this bill cannot and will not be the last word on the relief of Congress” to the crisis caused by the pandemic.
“This is an emergency survival package and when we return in January, our number one job will be to fill the gaps left by this project and get the economy moving with a strong federal contribution,” said Schumer.
These were the two most contentious points in the agreement, and the ones that had caused Congress to not take significant steps since the pandemic crisis began.
Earlier in the week, McConnell announced that there was some consensus that the debate between the two would be postponed before the holidays, so both clauses will be reviewed again starting next year.
