Early in the morning of February 27th, the U.S. House passed President Biden’s $1.9 trillion stimulus package, now it will move to the U.S. Senate where it could face a tougher battle. All but two of the Democrats in the U.S. House voted to pass the COVID-19 relief package from the federal government, and no Republican voted for the bill.
If it passes, it will be the sixth federal relief package, which currently includes $1400 check for people making less that $75,000 a year, $400 a week for unemployment benefits, and $350 dollars for state and local government funding. The proposed bill also raises the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour. Many Senate Republicans say a lot of the bill has nothing to do with COVID relief and would like to see a compromise on the plan.
“I have been talking to a number of my colleagues I have worked with in the past on this issue, who are Democrats, and they share some of my concerns,” says Sen. Rob Portman, Ohio’s Republican U.S. Senator. “Much of this money is not going to COVID-19, it’s not going to be spend in the next year, it has nothing to do with the addiction issue. Only less than 10% of it will be going to public health issues, like vaccine development, vaccine distribution, making sure we have testing and the follow through on PPE and so on. So. it’s to bad because there is a better way here.”
Portman has introduced bills to deal with drug addiction treatment and overdoses and overdose deaths which have been on the rise since the start of the pandemic.
