A view of the Capitol's Rotunda is seen reflected in an ambulance as negotiations on a COVID-19 economic bailout continue on Capitol Hill March 24, 2020, in Washington, DC. (Photo by BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images)
As negotiations stalled in the Senate on Tuesday, House Democrats released their own version of a coronavirus relief bill, upping the total cost to $2.5 trillion.
Both bills seek to address the overarching impacts of coronavirus on the economy. But the Republican leadership in the Senate and the Democratic leadership in the House are taking different approaches as to where those dollars should go.
Each piece of legislation is long: 247 pages for the Senate bill and a whopping 1,404 pages for the House bill. While we cannot distill every provision, here’s a look at some of the major differences between the two pieces of legislation:
Health care accessibility
Senate Republican bill:
House Democratic bill:
Additional health care money
Senate Republican bill:
House Democratic bill:
Direct aid to Americans
Senate Republican bill:
House Democrats’ bill:
Unemployment Insurance
Senate Republican’s bill:
House Democrats’ bill:
Paid leave and family medical leave
Senate Republican’s bill:
House Democrats’ bill:
Aid to small businesses
Senate Republican’s bill:
House Democrats’ bill:
State/local government assistance
Senate Republican’s bill:
House Democrats’ bill:
Student loan assistance
Senate Republican’s bill:
House Democrats’ bill:
The new bill also includes additional protections for health care workers dealing directly with COVID-19 patients, such as requiring hospitals and other health facilities to provide personal protective equipment (PPE) and implement clear protocols for dealing with the disease.
Other Democratic priorities include an expansion of nutrition assistance programs, commonly called food stamps, and election assistance provisions for states administering elections during the coronavirus pandemic. Eight states and Puerto Rico have already postponed primary elections.
Even though most public schools and universities have closed their doors, the Democrats’ bill sends funds their way, with $50 billion going to states to help shore up their school systems and $10 billion to universities affected by the outbreak.
The Democrats’ bill includes more stringent restrictions on limiting executive pay and stock buybacks for companies that receive money as part of the bill. Such restrictions were a major sticking point among Senate Democrats, who said the Republican bill did not go far enough in that respect.
House Democrats created airline-specific provisions, including requirements that companies receiving aid from the government meet new standards in carbon offsets and aim to reduce the airline industry’s carbon emissions by half by 2050.
The House bill also cancels all debt held by the U.S. Postal Service and allows it to borrow up to $15 billion from the federal government to operate during the crisis. The bill also requires the USPS to prioritize medical deliveries.
The House and Senate are still negotiating to come up with a final bill that addresses concerns on both sides and includes provisions from the White House. The Senate is still in session until a bill can be passed, and it has to be passed by unanimous consent in the House, meaning every person in the chamber must agree with the legislation. It is unclear what, if anything, from the House bill will be in the final agreement.
Such a deal could be announced as early as before the end of Tuesday.
President Donald Trump's administration is appealing a ruling blocking him from immediately firing Federal Reserve Gov. Lisa Cook as he seeks more control over the traditionally independent board. The notice of appeal was filed Wednesday, hours after U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb handed down the ruling. The White House insists the Republican president had the right to fire Cook over mortgage fraud allegations involving properties in Michigan and Georgia from before she joined the Fed. Cook's lawsuit denies the allegations and says the firing was unlawful. The case could soon reach the Supreme Court, which has allowed Trump to fire members of other independent agencies but suggested that power has limitations at the Fed.
Chief Justice John Roberts has let President Donald Trump remove a member of the Federal Trade Commission, the latest in a string of high-profile firings allowed for now by the Supreme Court.
President Donald Trump has fired one of two Democratic members of the U.S. Surface Transportation Board to break a 2-2 tie ahead of the board considering the largest railroad merger ever proposed.
The Rev. Al Sharpton is set to lead a protest march on Wall Street to urge corporate America to resist the Trump administration’s campaign to roll back diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. The New York civil rights leader will join clergy, labor and community leaders Thursday in a demonstration through Manhattan’s Financial District that’s timed with the anniversary of the Civil Rights-era March on Washington in 1963. Sharpton called DEI the “civil rights fight of our generation." He and other Black leaders have called for boycotting American retailers that scaled backed policies and programs aimed at bolstering diversity and reducing discrimination in their ranks.
President Donald Trump's administration last month awarded a $1.2 billion contract to build and operate what's expected to become the nation’s largest immigration detention complex to a tiny Virginia firm with no experience running correction facilities.
Cracker Barrel said late Tuesday it’s returning to its old logo after critics — including President Donald Trump — protested the company’s plan to modernize.
Federal Reserve Gov. Lisa Cook's lawyer says she'll sue President Donald Trump's administration to try to prevent him from firing her. Longtime Washington attorney Abbe Lowell said Tuesday that Trump “has no authority to remove” Cook. If Trump succeeds in removing Cook from the Fed's board of governors, it could erode the Fed’s political independence, which is considered critical to its ability to fight inflation because it enables the Fed to take unpopular steps like raising interest rates. The Republican president said Monday he was removing Cook because of allegations she committed mortgage fraud. Cook was appointed by Democratic President Joe Biden in 2022 and says she won't step down.
Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook late Wednesday said she wouldn’t leave her post after Trump on social media called on her to resign over an accusation from one his officials that she committed mortgage fraud.
Politico's Marcia Brown breaks down the MAHA draft roadmap: industry-friendly, light on regulation, heavy on research and voluntary food policy changes.
