Congress reaches a final agreement on pandemic relief

“President Trump has struggled for months to send Americans much-needed financial relief,” White House spokesman Ben Williamson said. “We look forward to Congress sending a bill to its working table imminently for signature.”

On Sunday, negotiators had been finalizing details of the rest of the bill after resolving a disagreement over the Federal Reserve’s emergency lending powers earlier this weekend. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) On Sunday afternoon said all outstanding issues were resolved.

“Finally, we have the bipartisan advance that the country has needed,” McConnell said in the Senate chamber. “We must now quickly finalize the text, avoid any last-minute obstacles and cooperate to move this legislation to both houses.”

The House approved a 24-hour extension of government funding Sunday evening, setting votes on the relief deal and a broader spending bill for Monday. The aid package is tied to an annual spending package of about $ 1.4 trillion, and Congress has approved a series of temporary spending bills in recent days to keep the government funded while negotiations are over.

“This deal is far from perfect, but it will offer emergency relief to a nation in the midst of a genuine emergency,” said Chuck Schumer (D., New York), leader of the Senate minority on the Senate floor.

The legislation envisions adding $ 300 to weekly unemployment payments for 11 weeks and extending two more unemployment programs until they begin to be phased out in mid-March and end in early April. These two programs extend the set of people eligible for unemployment benefits and extend their duration.

Direct checks are expected to be $ 600 per adult and $ 600 per child, with a decrease in amounts for people with incomes of more than $ 75,000 and $ 150,000 for couples. President Trump had pushed for direct controls to be included in the legislation.

So-called mixed households (where some members have Social Security numbers but others do not) would be eligible for partial payments, according to a person familiar with the discussions. Dependents over the age of 16 would not qualify, as in the first round of stimulus payments, despite requests from some lawmakers. This means that households will not receive payments for college students or disabled adults.

According to two people familiar with the measure, the bill will provide $ 15 billion in support of the airlines ’payroll. Approximately $ 280 billion would go to the Check Protection Program, most of the $ 325 billion the bill goes to small businesses. Theater operators and owners of small theaters would be eligible for $ 15 billion in grants.

Schools would receive $ 82 billion under the agreement and $ 10 billion would go to child care.

The deal would also include $ 25 billion in rental aid and extend a moratorium on evictions, Schumer said, as well as $ 13 billion in funds for food stamp benefits and child nutrition. And lawmakers agreed to increase the amount of money earmarked to fight the virus, adding $ 30 billion for the acquisition and distribution of a vaccine, as well as for testing and screening. Lawmakers also included $ 1.8 billion in tax credits for companies that provided paid leave.

The White House won a tax cut that President Trump had been looking for all year: the ability of companies to deduct restaurant meals. Some lawmakers had mocked the idea in part because it could favor the indoor food that spreads the coronavirus.

The agreement would extend a tax credit for employee retention and make it available to PPP recipients. According to one person familiar with the deal, interruptions in renewable energy, including incentives for wind power and carbon capture, would get temporary extensions.

Lower excise taxes on beer, wine and spirits that were due to expire on December 31 would be permanently extended and tax incentives would be increased to invest in low-income areas and hire workers from disadvantaged groups for five years. . It would also give workers who postponed payroll taxes under the president’s executive action until the end of 2021 to amortize them.

The passage of the bill would end an effort to draft another bipartisan aid agreement that lasted for much of the year. After quickly approving nearly $ 3 trillion in aid in the spring, Republicans and Democrats struggled for months to negotiate another package, with negotiations at several points being broken.

But the rapid spread of the virus this fall, signs of a slowdown in the economic recovery, a deadline for government funding and the imminent expiration of several existing aid measures pushed lawmakers to reach an agreement before the Congress would take a vacation break.

Negotiations accelerated last week after Congressional leaders agreed to withdraw two provisions: funding for local and state governments that Democrats and some Republicans had sought, as well as civil liability protections for businesses and other entities acting during the pandemic, a Republican Party priority.

Schumer made it clear that Democrats would again push for direct aid to state and local governments next year, when President-elect Joe Biden is in office. In addition to funding for schools and travel agencies, the current agreement extends the deadline to use $ 150 billion in state and local government grants approved earlier this year.

“Once this agreement is signed, it cannot be the last word on the relief of Congress,” Schumer said in the Senate chamber. “There are more things to do in the new year, with a new administration that has a much more supportive attitude to give the American people the help they need.”

A final turning point in the negotiations had focused on the Fed’s emergency lending powers. In March, the central bank announced lending programs to keep credit to large corporations, cities and states. Days later, Congress provided $ 454 billion to the Treasury Department to cover losses from Fed loan programs. Credit markets rebounded sharply, and the Fed eventually bought less than $ 30 billion in loans and other assets.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin last month refused to allow the programs to continue after Dec. 31, saying he did not believe it was legally allowed. A non-partisan research group in Congress discussed that interpretation Thursday.

In a last-minute push, Sen. Patrick Toomey (R., Pa.) Had insisted that the Fed be prevented from reviving these programs without the explicit approval of Congress. Democrats had been concerned that Mr. Toomey’s legislation would prevent the Fed from initiating other similar programs.

Under the agreement, the remaining funding previously provided to the Treasury Department would be revoked to support losses in the Fed’s loan programs and the Fed would not be able to replicate identical emergency loan programs next year. without congressional approval, according to aides familiar with the legislation. .

The commitment will ensure the Fed and the Biden administration are unable to restart lending programs “by creating a clone and calling it different,” Toomey told reporters Sunday. “These programs were never intended to be extended indefinitely.”

Democrats said they had retained the Fed’s critical lending powers.

“The Federal Reserve will retain its tools and authority in the event of a real emergency,” Schumer said.

Lawmakers said the final package would also include a bipartisan agreement released earlier this month to prevent patients from receiving surprise medical bills, including air ambulance rides. Surprise billing usually occurs when a patient is treated at a hospital in their insurance network by a medical professional who does not, which can lead to crippling medical problems.

—Richard Rubin, Nick Timiraos and Ken Thomas contributed to this article.

Write to Andrew Duehren at [email protected] and Kristina Peterson at [email protected]