Biden signs $1.9 trillion stimulus bill, making $1,400 checks and child tax credit official:
President Joe Biden on Thursday signed the $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package, which includes a third stimulus check, for up to $1,400, and an expanded child tax credit. The IRS and Treasury will begin to send the new stimulus checks as soon as this weekend, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Thursday at a press briefing.
The bill signing comes just one day after the amended bill passed in the House by a vote of 220-211. The House initially passed the bill on Feb. 26, and the Senate approved it last week, albeit with some changes.
[...] Democrats had been pushing to get the stimulus package signed into law before current unemployment benefits expire March 14. Biden was originally scheduled to sign the bill on Friday, but it got moved forward after Congress sent the final bill to the president more quickly than anticipated, Psaki said on Thursday.
The stimulus package, called the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, includes changes made by the Senate last week, such as reducing income limits for the third stimulus payment and lowering proposed weekly unemployment benefits from $400 a week to $300 a week (though they'd extend through Sept. 6 rather than the end of August). The Senate also dropped a federal minimum wage increase from the legislation, but proponents say they'll reintroduce that at a later date.
How to watch President Biden's national address tonight.
House passes $1.9 trillion Covid relief bill, sends it to Biden to sign:
[...] Here are the proposal's major pieces:
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 12 2021, @07:09AM
Are you also in favor of lying? Because the Democrats promised $2,000 checks ($600 + $1,400) if they won, and now they've excluded millions of people who received the $600 checks from receiving the $1,400 checks. Those people were 100% lied to and betrayed. Are you in support of that, too? What's worse is that the people in that income range were the ones who helped Democrats win states like Georgia. Is screwing over your own voters the strategy for winning 2022?
We saved what amounts to fucking pennies on this and broke a major promise. And I don't believe for one fucking millisecond that Joe Manchin would have tanked the entire must-pass bill if they had kept the income thresholds and unemployment benefits the same; that was just an excuse to do what Joe Biden wanted to do already. Such a 'compromise' would not have been made under Bernie.