The House of Representatives approves a new rescue to the economy worth 1.9 trillion

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Capitol Hill, Washington.CARLOS BARRIA / Reuters

The House of Representatives of the United States, controlled by the Democrats, approved this Saturday around two in the morning the aid package for 1.9 trillion dollars to combat the coronavirus crisis and rescue the economy.

Republicans voted en bloc against and Democratic congressmen Kurt Schrader and Jared Golden were the only ones who broke ranks with their party, which did not prevent the caucus from obtaining 219 votes, enough to carry out the plan presented by the Joe Biden Administration.

The legislation includes direct checks worth 1,400 dollars, a weekly unemployment bonus of 400, an annual allowance per child of 3,600 and billions of dollars for local governments and to distribute vaccines against covid-19, when the country exceeds half a million dead.

Now the Senate must give the go-ahead, although strong opposition from Republicans is expected, especially over the proposal to increase the minimum wage to $ 15 an hour.

Checks for $ 1,400 (more than double the $ 600 approved in the last congressional aid program) will be sent to individuals earning less than $ 75,000 a year or married couples earning up to $ 150,000, gradually decreasing in value until they reach to zero for individuals with incomes greater than 100,000.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Republican, has asserted that the legislation provides "hundreds of millions of dollars for favorite projects [of Democrats] without an ounce of relevance to the pandemic or recovery."

The monumental stimulus package is the first of the Biden era in addition to the four trillion dollars previously approved to address the health and economic crisis that the country is going through due to the pandemic.

The House Minority Leader, Republican Kevin McCarthy, attacked the bill this morning, calling it "expensive, corrupt and progressive" on Twitter.

One of the main fighting flags of the left wing of the Democratic Party reflected in the aid package is the increase in the federal minimum wage from $ 7.25 to $ 15 an hour, staggered over four years.

The House of Representatives has included this proposal, "a moral imperative," according to Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, it will likely not survive in the Senate.

Elizabeth MacDonough, the Senate's official adviser on rules and procedures - a nonpartisan position - determined on Thursday that the minimum wage hike should be removed from the plan to combat the crisis because it goes against the budget reconciliation process, a mechanism they want use Democratic senators to pass legislation with a simple majority (50 votes, the number of Democratic senators), instead of 60.

The White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, said in relation to the MacDonough ruling that the US president is "disappointed" but "respects the decision" of the legal advisor and the Senate process.

Psaki added that the Democratic president would "determine the best way forward" on a minimum wage increase, but called on lawmakers to "act quickly to pass" the rest of the Covid-19 aid package in the meantime.

The plan, already approved by both Houses of Congress, is expected to reach Biden's desk for signature in mid-March.