Covid-19: US Congress passes largest relief package in history
New York: Displaying uncharacteristic political solidarity, the US Congress has voted the largest ever economic stimulus package worth about $2 trillion to rescue the nation from the clutches of the Covid-19 pandemic.
After months of confrontation and invective capped by President Donald Trump’s impeachment, the two parties came together to vote the recovery package unanimously on Friday in the House of Representatives, after the Senate had passed it unanimously.
President Trump has said that he will sign it as soon as he gets it.
The highlight of the package, which amounts to almost 10 per cent of the US gross domestic product, is an outright payment of $1,200 each to most adults in the US and $500 each for children.
It includes aid for businesses, allocation for medical efforts against the coronavirus, food assistance and help for states and local governments.
The voting in the House came on a day when the US had recorded 86,012 cases, surpassing China where the pandemic began. In a bleak economic picture, 3.3 million officially registered as unemployed, while there is also a large number of others who have not yet applied for unemployment insurance benefit, many of them from the informal sector.
It was done by voice vote as many representatives were stuck in their constituencies either because of self-quarantine or cancellation of flights.
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