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The House of Representatives yesterday approved President Biden's sweeping $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package in a starkly partisan 220-211 vote, The Hill reported. No Republican lawmakers backed the legislation, which will become law as much of the nation marks one year of lockdowns from the COVID-19 era. Just one Democrat, Rep. Jared Golden (Maine), opposed the measure. Biden has said that he will sign the measure as soon as it reaches his desk, with the White House saying he's expected to sign it on Friday. The president is set to address the nation tomorrow evening on the coronavirus pandemic. Senate centrists pushed a number of key changes to the House-passed bill to the frustration of progressives, including keeping the weekly unemployment insurance supplemental payments at the current $300 instead of increasing them to $400 as under the initial House bill. Unemployment insurance payments will run through Sept. 6, and up to $10,200 of the benefits will be exempt from taxes.

Small-business advocates are calling on the federal government to extend the March 31 deadline to apply for a loan from the Paycheck Protection Program, citing recent changes made to the program and delays in processing applications, the Wall Street Journal reported. “Time is not on our side. These businesses need a little more help, and they’re willing to do the work,” Hilda Kennedy, president of the PPP lender AmPac Business Capital, said yesterday during a House Small Business Committee hearing focused on the future of the program. Kennedy was speaking of the very smallest firms, such as those owned by sole proprietors. “We need more time to serve them,” she added. As of March 7, the Small Business Administration had approved 2.4 million loans totaling roughly $165 billion, or nearly 60% of available funds, for loans to first-time and returning borrowers under the reopened program, according to agency data. Lenders issue the loans, and the SBA guarantees them. Advocates say a deadline extension would give lenders more time to implement the administration’s recently announced changes and inform small businesses about how the revisions could benefit them. Read more. (Subscription required.) 

Click here for the replay, witness list and prepared testimony for the House Small Business Committee's hearing from yesterday titled "The Next Steps for the Paycheck Protection Program." 

The House is poised to send the $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief plan to President Joe Biden for his signature, providing an economic boost that will last long after $1,400 stimulus checks start arriving in Americans’ accounts this month, Bloomberg News reported. With four days until supplemental unemployment benefits begin running out, House Democratic leaders expect passage today. The bill provides a template for a potential longer-term expansion of an American social-safety net that has long been much smaller than its European counterparts. Democrats say the near-$110 billion temporary expansion of the child-tax credit will help cut child poverty in half, while tax forgiveness on jobless benefits and student-debt relief will give help to millions more. Economists this week were upping their projections for growth to incorporate the impact. Morgan Stanley on Tuesday raised their 2021 forecast for U.S. economic growth to 7.3% from 6.5%, a pace unsurpassed since the Korean War boom in 1951. The OECD the same day more than doubled its own estimate. Read more.

In related news, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) said yesterday that he plans to introduce legislation to prevent the $1,400 direct payments in Democrats' coronavirus relief package from being seized by private debt collectors, The Hill reported. "While Democrats intend to protect the third payment from private debt collectors, Senate rules did not allow us to include that protection in the American Rescue Plan," Wyden said in a statement. "I will be introducing standalone legislation to ensure families receive their much-needed relief payments." Direct payments of up to $1,400 per person are a key part of the $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package that passed the Senate over the weekend. Democrats say the payments will help people who are struggling financially because of the pandemic cover important expenses. The Senate passed the coronavirus relief package on Saturday using the budget reconciliation process so that the chamber could approve the measure with a simple majority vote. Under Senate rules, reconciliation bills can't include provisions that don't have an impact on the federal budget. Read more. 

The American Bankruptcy Institute (ABI) sent a letter to Senate Judiciary Committee leadership on Friday supporting S. 473, the "COVID-19 Bankruptcy Relief Extension Act," to extend, for another year, bankruptcy-relief provisions due to sunset in the 2020 CARES Act and December 2020 omnibus appropriations bill. “There is no doubt that the COVID-19 pandemic and its aftermath will continue to put significant strain on U.S. small businesses in the near future and perhaps for years to come,” ABI Executive Director Amy Quackenboss writes in the letter to bill co-sponsors Senate Judiciary Chairman Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) and Ranking Member Charles Grassley (R-Iowa). “By extending the increased debt limit of the SBRA, the COVID-19 Bankruptcy Relief Extension Act offers much-needed relief to a growing number of U.S. small businesses who find themselves in need of reorganizing in order to stay in business.”

Click here to read ABI’s letter.

The Federal Reserve on Monday announced it would keep its program for buying Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans from banks open for additional three months and allow three other facilities to expire at the end of March, The Hill reported. The Fed will keep its PPP liquidity facility open through June 30, allowing lenders to sell PPP loans to the central bank and use the proceeds to make new loans to small businesses. The Senate-passed version of President Biden’s $1.9 trillion economic relief plan includes an additional $284 billion for PPP loans, which can be forgiven entirely if used by a business to cover payroll, rent and other basic expenses. The PPP facility is one of more than a dozen emergency lending programs set up by the Fed during the onset of the coronavirus pandemic as financial markets nearly broke down in panic. All but four of the Fed’s emergency facilities were shut down at the end of 2020, and the bank announced Monday that the Commercial Paper Funding Facility, the Money Market Mutual Fund Liquidity Facility, and the Primary Dealer Credit Facility will close on March 30 after minimal usage since the summer.

The House looked on track to pass the latest version of the $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package later this week, as liberal Democrats swallowed their frustration with the Senate’s changes and prepared to approve the bill for a second time, the Wall Street Journal reported. Democrats, who hold a slim majority in the House, will need to stay largely united behind the legislation given the absence of any GOP support, providing an early test for party leaders. The House is expected to narrowly pass the bill today or tomorrow, sending it to the White House for President Biden’s signature. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D., Md.) had initially said the House would take its first procedural vote on the bill Monday, but processing the bill’s Senate paperwork pushed the vote slightly later in the week, aides said. The legislation would provide $300 in weekly unemployment benefits through Sept. 6, send $1,400 direct payments to many Americans, direct $350 billion to state and local governments, fund vaccine distribution and expand the child tax credit, among other aid. Read more. (Subscription required.) 

In related news, the coronavirus relief package that President Biden is expected to sign into law in the near future would cut taxes on average by about $3,000 in 2021 and would have the biggest impact on the after-tax incomes of low- and middle-income households, according to an analysis released yesterday by the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center (TPC), The Hill reported. The analysis focuses on four major tax provisions in the bill: the $1,400 direct payments and the expansions of the child tax credit, earned income tax credit, and child and dependent care tax credit. The Senate passed the bill on Saturday, and final passage in the House is expected this week. Those with incomes under $25,500 would on average see a 20.1 percent increase in their after-tax incomes for 2021, the biggest percent change of any income group, according to the analysis. Households in the middle of the income distribution, with income between roughly $51,000 and $91,000, would see a 5.5 percent increase in their after-tax income. Read more.

The Senate on Saturday approved a sweeping $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief plan on Saturday, the Washington Post reported. With its massive price tag, and major expansion of federal social safety net programs, the package is set to count among one of the largest rescue measures in U.S. history, reflecting Democrats’ pledges to erase disparities that long predate the deadly pandemic. The bill authorizes $1,400 checks to millions of low- and middle-income Americans, bolsters families by providing new yearly child tax benefits, boosts unemployment payments for workers still out of a job, and invests heavily in the country’s attempt to climb back from a public-health emergency that has devastated families, workers, students and businesses alike. Senate Democrats adopted the measure entirely on party lines, muscling through a marathon, 25-hour debate that forced them to confront dissent from within the party’s own ranks. The House is set to vote on the Senate’s version of the stimulus on Tuesday, teeing up checks and other financial assistance to start to reach Americans as soon as this month.

The Senate voted yesterday to open debate on President Biden’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief bill, as Democrats moved forward with no GOP support after failing to win over a single Republican senator on the new president’s first major legislative initiative, the Washington Post reported. The vote was 51 to 50, with Vice President Harris breaking the 50-to-50 tie. GOP unity against the procedural motion suggested that no Republican will vote in favor of the legislation on final passage, which will come after hours of debate and an amendment free-for-all that could drag into the weekend. Once it passes the Senate, the legislation will have to go back to the House for final approval before being sent to Biden’s desk for his signature. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has guaranteed the House will pass the Senate’s version of the bill, despite some changes that liberals dislike, including narrowing eligibility for $1,400 relief checks and excluding a $15 minimum wage.