Biden says ‘help is here’ as $1.9T bill with $1,400 stimulus checks is APPROVED with money due to be sent out in days
JOE Biden's has said "help is here" as the $1.9trillion stimulus bill with $1,400 checks is approved.
Just minutes before the vote was confirmed, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki confirmed that the president will sign the $1.9trillion Covid relief bill on Friday afternoon.
Following the news the elated president tweeted: "Help is here." He also issued a statement saying that American voices have "been heard" today.
"This legislation is about giving the backbone of this nation — the essential workers, the working people who built this country, the people who keep this country going — a fighting change," the president wrote.
The landmark bill was passed as 220 to 211 votes. All Republicans voted against the bill, with Democrat Representative Jared Golden as the only blue no.
House and Senate Republicans had tried to stop the bill from being passed.
House GOP leader Steve Scalise said: "It’s not focused on COVID relief. It’s focused on pushing more of the far-left agenda."
Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene also made a "motion to adjourn" to stop Congress from passing the relief bill on Wednesday morning.
She labeled the package as a "massive woke progressive Democrat wish list."
"The GOP has messaged against this ridiculous bill. We should do everything to stop it. Pay attention if Rs vote to adjourn. Or with the Dems," she tweeted.
But for Democrats, the bill is essentially a canvas on which they’ve painted their core beliefs — that government programs can be a benefit, not a bane, to millions of people and that spending huge sums on such efforts can be a cure, not a curse.
The measure so closely tracks Democrats’ priorities that several rank it with the top achievements of their careers, and despite their slender congressional majorities there was never real suspense over its fate.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi described the bill as: "A remarkable, historic, transformative piece of legislation which goes a very long way to crushing the virus and solving our economic crisis."
After Pelosi hit the gavel, Biden said: "I want to thank all the members who voted for it, especially Speaker Pelosi, the finest and most capable speaker in the history of our nation.
"Once again, she has led into law an historic piece of legislation that addresses a major crisis and lifts up millions of Americans," his statement read.
Biden is on track to sign off on the $1,400 stimulus checks for low and middle income Americans this week.
Moderates forced tightened eligibility for the $1,400 stimulus checks, now phased out completely for individuals earning $80,000 and couples making $160,000.
The House’s initial extension of the soon-to-end $400 weekly emergency jobless payments, paid on top of state benefits, was trimmed by the Senate to $300 and will now halt in early September.
Senator Joe Manchin was a leading holdout and in the middle of talks that resulted in curbing all of those initiatives. The Senate approved the bill on a party-line 50-49 vote on Saturday.
Also dropped was the House-approved federal minimum-wage increase to $15 hourly by 2025.
Dropping the minimum-wage boost was “infuriating,” said Rep Pramila Jayapal chair of the roughly 100-member Congressional Progressive Caucus.
But she called the overall bill "incredibly bold," adding, "It hits all of our progressive priorities — putting money in people’s pockets, shots in arms, unemployment insurance, child care, schools."
However, the package does up spending for Covid-19 testing, along with tax breaks to help people earning less – and Democrats in the chamber are expected to approve the bill.
Thereafter, stimulus checks will begin being sent out to Americans who fit the bill.
However, Biden's name will not appear on this third round of stimulus checks.
The White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki confirmed the decision on Tuesday afternoon.
"We're doing everything in our power to expedite the payments and not delay them," she said.
She went on to confirm that this is the reason as to why Biden's name will not appear on the memo line "of this round of checks."
Instead, Psaki confirmed that the checks will be signed by a career official.
"This is not about him, this is about the American people getting relief," Psaki added.
When asked whether or not the president himself wanted to have his name on the checks, the press sec confirmed: "He didn't think that was a priority or a necessary step.
"His focus was on getting them out as quickly as possible," she added.
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