Congressional Centrists Float $908B Aid Package

By Staff Reports

A $908 billion relief package is being kicked around Washington, D.C., by centrist legislators, and although it would be something for COVID-19 relief since the last aid approved in March, it falls far short of making anybody happy.

The plan includes funding for key areas such as unemployment compensation while falling trillions short of the relief Democrats have been asking for.
President-elect Joe Biden called it a “good start.”

“That would be a good start. It’s not enough,” Biden said Thursday on CNN. “I think it should be passed. I’m going to ask for more … when we get there to get things done.”

The only details released so far is a one-page brief with several items to fund, and also short-term protection against coronavirus-related lawsuits, which Senate Republicans have demanded and congressional Democrats have opposed.

The plan would provide funding to help distribute the coronavirus vaccine, as well as funding for hospitals, food aid and the U.S. Postal Service.

The plan was floated the day before another employment report showed that job creation is slowing amid the coronavirus surge.

Organizations such as the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy said the aid is necessary although inadequate.

"The $908 billion bipartisan plan released yesterday is a shadow of what's needed,” the institute said in a release. “With more than 10 million jobs lost this year, the package provides $300 a week in federal unemployment benefits, far from what families need to thrive. The proposal contains a paltry $160 billion in funding for state and local government, less than a third of what's needed. The proposal contains no direct aid to families beyond the unemployment benefits, a mistake.”