The package will also help millions of Americans avoid unexpected — and often exorbitant — medical bills that can result from hospital visits. „We have now agreed on a bill that will crush the virus and put money in the pockets of struggling working families,“ spokeswoman Nancy Pelosi wrote Sunday in a letter to Democrats detailing some details of the measure. „This emergency aid law is an important first step.“ The package expands some provisions of the initial recovery plan adopted in the spring and adds new measures to help working families who continue to suffer from the pandemic. Economists had warned that a stimulus measure of the size discussed on Capitol Hill would fall short of the level of support needed to support the economic recovery, even if the bill overshadowed the roughly $800 billion stimulus package that Congress passed in 2009 to combat the Great Recession. The Democrats, who had abandoned calls for another multi-trillion-dollar package, were already calling on Biden to respond quickly to a much broader aid package. While Mr. Trump`s signature will be on the law, its impact will be much greater for President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr., who must keep the economic recovery faltering. Biden, who has quietly lobbied for lawmakers to reach a compromise that would provide at least modest aid after months of congressional inaction, is expected to seek another major economic aid package after he takes office in January.

Economic assistance is urgently needed; The Department of Labor estimates that 19 million people currently have unemployment insurance, and coronavirus cases and deaths in the United States are at record levels. The emergency use of two different coronavirus vaccines has been approved by the federal government, but experts say it will take painful months to get enough Americans vaccinated to make a measurable difference in everyday life. If Trump were to make a pocket veto against the stimulus package, Congress would not be able to override it. While the wording that includes this compromise is apparently still being finalized — and it`s not yet clear how the deal could reduce the real impact of the stimulus — Schumer told reporters Saturday night that he believes the House of Representatives and Senate will vote on the omnibus and stimulus package on Sunday. The bill would also simplify the federal government`s grant form, dubbed the free application for federal student aid, or FAFSA, one of the far-reaching educational policy changes included in the agreement. Democrats have secured important provisions on college affordability, such as a significant expansion of the federal Pell scholarship program for low-income students and the lifting of a decades-old ban on extending scholarships to prisoners seeking a degree behind bars. The agreement also provides more than $1 billion in federal loans to historically black colleges and universities. Right now, the two sides continue to back and forth on a handful of open-ended issues, including how private schools should be treated as part of the more than $80 billion in aid to schools and education providers.

Republicans had demanded $5 billion in aid to private schools — but Democrats had tried to reduce it to about $2.5 billion, according to a source with direct knowledge of the talks. More help is on the way. A few moments ago, the four speakers of the Senate and the House of Representatives reached an agreement in consultation with our committees. This will be another great bailout for the American people. As our citizens continue to fight this coronavirus this holiday season, they will not fight alone. We have agreed on an envelope of nearly $900 billion. It is full of targeted measures to help troubled Americans who have already waited far too long. For workers in the most affected small businesses, there will be a second targeted draw from the Paycheque Protection Program. We haven`t worked as hard in all these months to save as many jobs as possible just to grope the ball with the vaccinations already underway.

Speaking of vaccines, we can undo the success of Operation Warp Speed by falling asleep at the distribution office, so this agreement will provide huge sums of money for the logistics that will bring these vital vaccines to our citizens as quickly as possible. Of course, several million Americans have lost their jobs and continue to lose them through no fault of their own. This program will renew and expand a number of other key federal unemployment benefits that have helped families stay afloat. In all kinds of families, in all kinds of situations, it has been a difficult time in all areas. At the special request and at the insistence of President Trump and his administration, our agreement will provide for another round of direct payments to help households make ends meet and continue our economic recovery. After tense negotiations Saturday afternoon, there were signs of progress: The deal would provide the first significant injection of federal dollars into the economy since April, as negotiators broke the months-long partisan stalemate that had shattered previous negotiations, leaving millions of Americans and businesses without federal assistance as the pandemic raged. While the plan is about half the size of the $2.2 trillion stimulus bill passed in March, it is one of the largest aid programs in modern history. Asked about the exchange, Sanders said it was opened during the private phone call with his belief that Democrats gave in too easily to Republican demands. The proposal, which would prevent the central bank from reviving emergency credit efforts that would expire at the end of the year and potentially limit its ability to fight future financial crises, turned out on Friday to be perhaps the most sensitive point of contention that is delaying the stimulus package. This could take away some of the Fed`s power as a „lender of last resort“ and limit Biden`s room for maneuver to deal with the ongoing economic consequences of the pandemic.

Lawmakers have postponed until Sunday a vote on incentives and government funding. With a midnight deadline on Sunday, congressional leaders finally reached an agreement on a new COVID-19 stimulus and omnibus spending package after months of stalemate. Negotiations continued through the weekend after Congress was forced to pass an emergency resolution bill to avoid a government shutdown before the expiration of the midnight deadline before Friday`s midnight deadline expired. .