WASHINGTON—The House Budget Committee approved the $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package Monday, setting up a vote in the full House later this week.
The Budget Committee on Monday officially fused together different portions of the legislation that had advanced earlier this month in nine different House committees. A full House vote is expected Friday or Saturday.
The bill moving through the House would provide $400-a-week unemployment benefits through Aug. 29, send $1,400 per-person payments to most households, provide billions in funding for schools and vaccine distribution, expand the child tax credit, broaden child-care assistance and bolster tax credits for health insurance. It would also increase the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour over four years, a point of division among Democrats.
“We are in a race against time. Aggressive, bold action is needed before our nation is more deeply and permanently scarred by the human and economic costs of inaction,” House Budget Committee Chairman John Yarmuth (D., Ky.) said Monday before the vote. “We are going to pass this legislation and we are going to turn this pandemic and economic crisis around.”
In the past month, new Covid-19 cases have declined as vaccines rolled out to more Americans, and economists have upgraded their outlooks for the year. But officials including Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen have said the $1.9 trillion package is needed to dig out of the economic slump induced by the pandemic.
