HOUSE APPROVES $1.9 TRILLION COVID RELIEF PLAN

The US House of Representatives moved toward a late-night vote on President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus aid bill on Friday as Democrats who control the chamber steered the sweeping measure toward approval, Richard Cowan and Andy Sullivan reported for Reuters.

The House Rules Committee turned back scores of Republican attempts to modify the package and sent it to the House floor for passage late Friday or early Saturday. With Republicans lining up in opposition, Democrats who hold a 221-211 majority have few votes to spare.

Democrats said the package was needed to fight a pandemic that has killed more than 500,000 Americans and thrown millions out of work, while Republicans criticized it as too expensive. The measure would pay for vaccines and medical supplies and send a new round of emergency financial aid to households, small businesses and state and local governments.

Democrats aim to get the bill for Biden to sign into law before mid-March, when enhanced unemployment benefits and some other types of aid are due to expire. The House bill would raise the national hourly minimum wage for the first time since 2009, to $15 from $7.25.

The increase is a top priority for progressive Democrats.

But their path has been complicated by the Senate’s rules expert, who said on Thursday that they cannot include an increase in the minimum wage to $15 per hour in the package.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi predicted the bill will pass Congress with or without the increase, but said Democrats would not give up on the matter. “We will not stop until we very soon pass the $15 minimum wage,” she said at a news conference.

Republicans who have broadly backed previous COVID-19 spending say another $1.9 trillion is simply too much. The White House and some economists say a big package is needed to revive the world’s largest economy. Opinion polls have found broad public support for the package.

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