The House of Representatives narrowly approved on Thursday a modified version of an economic relief package for the COVID-19 pandemic, for 2.2 trillion dollars, which it had already approved last May, while negotiations with the White House continue.
The Democratic legislation passed after a 214-207 vote in the Lower House, with no Republicans supporting it.
The legislation, called Heroes 2.0, will now go to the Senate where he is expected to die, as the differences between the two banks prevail in what the new aid should include due to the financial impact of the pandemic.
Republican Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said yesterday:
"The idea of Senate Republicans going up to 2.2 billion is outlandish."
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The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, had told reporters tonight that negotiations with the Secretary of the Treasury, Steven Mnuchin, were still underway, although she showed little optimism about reaching an agreement.
“Even if we do reach an agreement, nothing is final until an agreement is reached on everything,” Pelosi explained.
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The approval of the Democratic plan and negotiations with the Republicans come amid dire economic news for Americans.
Airlines will lay off about 30,000 workers following the expiration of aid approved earlier this year, and a report released Thursday showed 837,000 people filed for unemployment benefits for the first time last week.
What will happen to the expected new check?
What was approved this Thursday by the Lower House does not bring legislators closer to delivering concrete aid to Americans.
Until there is an agreement with the Republicans and the White House there will be no more generous weekly unemployment payments or extended aid for small businesses and economic sectors especially hard hit such as restaurants and airlines.
Neither is another
round of direct payments of $ 1,200
to most Americans.
If negotiations fail before the November elections, this could mean that there will not be significant help for struggling families and businesses until next year.
At what stage are the negotiations?
Pelosi and some of the top Democratic leaders in Congress have had a series of conversations with Mnuchin about the content of the economic relief package, but
obstacles related to the inclusion of a tax credit for families with minor children, plus aid for the small business, and more funds for health coverage.
In an interview with Noticias Telemundo, the Democratic congressman for New Mexico, Ben Ray Luján, explained that his caucus has negotiated in good faith with the Republicans about another round of aid due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and that it is the Republicans who obstruct the negotiations.
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With the new version, “we seek a middle ground with the Republicans, we reduce the amount of the package by a trillion dollars… I remain optimistic that we will reach an agreement.” Luján is the highest-ranking Hispanic in the history of the House of Representatives.
“The only one absent from the negotiations here has been the leader of the Republican majority in the Senate, Mitch McConnell… with the first relief package, the CARES Act, we also saw resistance from the Republicans in the Senate and from some Republicans in the House. Low, "he complained.
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For Democrats, the best option on the table is the revision they presented of their Heroes Act bill, because it
would include a second round of direct checks for $ 1,200 to working and middle class families.
That measure is a modified version of the bill of the same name that the lower house, under Democratic control, approved last May.
However, even if the Democrats approve its modified version, the measure does not have enough votes for approval in the Senate.
In addition to direct checks, the Democratic measure reinstates additional unemployment benefits, for $ 600 a week, that were included in the first economic relief package approved last March but expired last July.
Washington correspondent María Peña contributed to this report.
