The House approved President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion pandemic rescue plan in a 219 to 212 vote early Saturday morning, sending the measure to the Senate as Democrats race to pass it into law before boosted unemployment payments expire next month, <em>Politico</em> reported. All but two Democrats supported the sprawling coronavirus relief package, with zero Republicans backing it — a major step toward enacting the White House’s first major legislative priority amid dueling public health and economic crises. Days after the U.S. marked 500,000 deaths to the virus, the Democrats’ COVID aid bill would send $1,400 stimulus checks to millions of Americans, boost unemployment payments and increase the child tax credit. It would also provide billions of dollars in aid to small businesses, states and efforts to test for and vaccinate against the coronavirus. But House GOP leaders, who kept their members in line against the bill, have argued the price tag is too high, with programs that are unrelated to fighting the virus. If passed, the package will be one of the largest ever approved by Congress, and the fifth major piece of legislation approved since the pandemic began. The Senate will take up the measure this week, where top Democrats will be forced to grapple with a major setback to Biden’s plan — their push to include a long-sought minimum wage increase has officially run afoul of the Senate’s arcane budget rules. For now though, the House package still includes that federal minimum wage hike to $15 an hour, assuring minimal drama in the lower chamber, and forcing Senate Republicans to formally nix it.
