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WASHINGTON - The U.S. House of Representatives is nearing a final vote on the Senate-approved version of President Joe Biden's $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package, which is designed to give a new financial boost to millions of American families and businesses.
The Democratic Party-controlled House is expected to vote on the measure early Wednesday, clearing the legislation for Biden to sign. It would give him a major legislative victory less than two months into his presidency.
"It's really just a matter of paperwork. But we are going to have a vote as soon as we can," Democratic Congresswoman Katherine Clark, the assistant House speaker, told CNN.
In politically divided Washington, Biden's plan narrowly cleared the Senate last weekend, after the chamber altered some aspects of the version approved earlier by the House. The House now is expected to approve the Senate-adopted legislation without further changes and solely with Democratic votes over unified Republican opposition.
Biden has lobbied his fellow Democrats in Congress to adopt the massive spending measure, one of the largest ever considered by Congress. Republican lawmakers say the package is too large and does not sufficiently target Americans who most need the money.
The package includes $1,400 checks for all but the highest-earning adults in the country, and $3,000 or $3,600 to children, depending on their age. Unemployed workers will continue to get $300-a-week national government payments into early September on top of state assistance. State and city governments will get $350 billion to help them recover from the pandemic.
In addition, tens of billions of dollars will fund coronavirus testing and contact tracing, as well as vaccine distribution, along with new aid for businesses that have been hard hit by directives that curtailed their operations over the last year.
Biden visited a hardware store in Washington on Tuesday that has benefited from a pandemic-related paycheck protection loan program.
Compared to coronavirus relief approved last year, Biden says the newest legislation targets loans more narrowly to small businesses. He said a lot of "mom-and-pop businesses got muscled out of the way by bigger companies that jumped in front of the line" a year ago.
White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki praised the legislation at a news conference Monday, saying that while there were some changes on the margins as the Senate acted, it represented the "core" of what Biden originally proposed.
On Tuesday, she said Biden and other senior administration officials plan to continue to tout the benefits of the $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief plan after it passes.
"We certainly recognize that we can't just sign a bill," she told reporters. "We will need to do some work and use our best voices, including the president, the vice president and others, to communicate to the American people the benefits of this package, how they can benefit from the package, how they can have access to [stimulus] checks."
"So, I think you can certainly expect the president to be doing some travel, and we'll have more details on that in the coming days," she said.