The Senate unanimously passed a massive stimulus package late Wednesday night in an effort to jumpstart an economy decimated by the coronavirus pandemic.
The bill provides more than $2 trillion for workers, small business and industries impacted in recent weeks by the virus.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) compared the efforts by Congress to combat the coronavirus to being on a “war-time footing.”
“This is not even a stimulus package. It is emergency relief. Emergency relief. That’s what this is,” McConnell said Wednesday afternoon ahead of the vote.
But the bill marks an unprecedented attempt by the federal government to revive the economy and prevent a deep recession. The 2008 Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), by comparison, was $700 billion.
Congress has been under intense pressure to pass a third round of coronavirus relief funding as the United States saw a steady uptick of cases, which has rattled the markets and upended day-to-day American life. The Senate’s vote comes one week after they passed a $104 billion “phase two” coronavirus package.
The 96-0 vote came only 20 hours after congressional leaders and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin announced that they had clinched an agreement after more than four days of around-the-clock negotiations that kept lawmakers in the Capitol late into the night every day since Friday.
…….
- Discussion
You must be logged in to reply to this topic.