Democratic and Republican leaders have now spent months in a maddening standoff over the next round of coronavirus relief, failing to strike a deal as unemployment benefits expired, struggling businesses burned through their government aid, and COVID cases soared. So on Tuesday, with time running out before Congress is scheduled leave Washington for its holiday break, a bipartisan group of lawmakers from both the Senate and House tried to end the logjam by unveiling a $908 billion compromise package. Importantly, its backers included Senate Republican moderates Mitt Romney, Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, and Bill Cassidy.
The agreement checks off many of the major priorities Democrats have sought to address in a new deal, albeit while funding them less generously than the $2.2 trillion bill the House passed in July. The new proposal includes $300 a week of extra unemployment benefits, $288 billion for small businesses, $160 billion for state and local governments, $82 billion for schools, and $25 billion for rental assistance, as well as funding for airlines and transit systems, the U.S. Postal Service, day care, vaccine distribution, and other to-do-list items.
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