Stimulus package 2020

Senate to vote Wednesday on $2 trillion coronavirus bill after landmark agreement with White House

The Senate plans to vote Wednesday afternoon on a $2 trillion stimulus package that is designed to flood the U.S. economy with money in an effort to stabilize households and businesses that have been floored by the coronavirus outbreak.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) announced the breakthrough on the Senate floor around 1:30 a.m., after a long day of talks with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and other administration officials. Senate leaders plan to vote on the bill later Wednesday, though aides were still scrambling to write it. “This is a very important bipartisan piece of legislation that is going to be very important to help American workers, American business and people across America,” Mnuchin told reporters early Wednesday morning. “We couldn’t be more pleased.”

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) gave an upbeat assessment of the bill early Wednesday, but the logistics of the legislation’s passage through the House remain unclear. The House could likely vote as soon as Thursday on the measure, but New York Governor Andrew Cuomo was demanding changes on Wednesday and it appeared it was taking lawmakers longer than expected to release the final text. Nearly half of the country’s 55,000 cases are in New York, and the health care system around New York City is completely overwhelmed.

Cuomo said the bill would be “terrible” for his state and added that “We need the House to make adjustments.”

The Senate bill, unprecedented in its size and scope, would send $1,200 checks to many Americans, create a $367 billion loan program for small businesses, and establish a $500 billion lending fund for industries, cities and states.