The House cleared a new small-business and healthcare spending package on Thursday that will provide $484 billion in funding that responds to the impact of the coronavirus.
The measure now heads to President Trump, who is expected to sign it into law immediately.
The measure provides $310 billion to replenish a newly created small-business aid program, $75 billion for healthcare facilities, $25 billion to increased coronavirus testing, and $60 billion for an economic disaster-relief program.
House Democrats, who are in the majority, said the measure will be followed by a much larger and more costly economic aid package along the lines of the $2.2 trillion measure Congress passed a month ago.
“This bill is an interim step as we continue to work on the next major piece of legislation,” said Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, a Maryland Democrat.
The House passed the latest measure two days after it was passed by the Senate, where party lawmakers spent nearly two weeks negotiating a deal.
The spending bill was initially set to include $250 billion for the small-business funding, but Democrats blocked it and negotiated to get the extra money for hospitals, testing, and small businesses that have traditionally had difficulty obtaining bank loans.
House Republicans accused Democrats of delaying the small-business aid by two weeks in order to force their wish list into the bill.
“This bill was 16 days too late,” said Rep. Kevin Brady, the top Republican on the Way and Means Committee. “It got held up by all this extracurricular stuff.”
The House voted on the measure hours after new and devastating jobless numbers were released, and Republicans pinned some of the losses on Democrats for delaying passage of the small-business funding.
“We saw another $4.4 million people lose their jobs — just this week,” Minority Whip Steve Scalise, a Louisiana Republican, said. “And yet, there were businesses holding on, waiting for the last two weeks while this leverage game was played.”
Democrats said the changes they insisted on including in the bill will ensure that more vulnerable small businesses receive aid and not larger companies, which so far appear to have better access to the funding. They also touted the inclusion of money for coronavirus testing, which Democrats say must be widely implemented before the economy can reopen.
“This legislation is much improved from what came over from the Senate,” said Rep. Richard Neal, a Massachusetts Democrat and Ways and Means Committee chairman.
Democrats said they will now get to work on a massive spending bill that will provide billions in aid to state and local governments, $25,000 in bonuses to workers, a bailout of the U.S. postal service’s debt, and funding for mail-in elections.
Some Democrats are pushing for the next round of spending to include money to cover rent and mortgage payments.
“Now is not the time to rest. People are counting on us,” Rep. Ayanna Pressley, a Massachusetts Democrat, said. “People are counting on us. They deserve healthcare, economic, and housing justice.”
