A divided U.S. Senate approves President Biden's $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package as the president says "help is on the way"....By editor Kathy Wray Coleman of Clevelandurbannews.com and-Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com

 

      

U.S. President Joe Biden

By Kathy Wray Coleman, associate publisher, editor-in-Chief

 Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, WASHINGTON, D.C.- The U.S. House of Representatives on Saturday passed a $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill crafted by President Joe Biden, and along partisan lines.

"We have no time to waste," Biden said after the House approved the measure. "We can finally get ahead of this virus." 

The controversial measure that polls show most Americans favor passed the House 219-212 with not one Republican voting in support of it, the $15 federal minimum wage provision in the bill that was a sticking point for Republicans and some Democrats stripped away altogether prior to Saturday's House vote.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a San Francisco Democrat, called the minimum wage increase “a financial necessity for our families, a great stimulus for our economy and a moral imperative for our country.” 

The bill now heads to the Senate where the Democrats hope to resurrect the minimum wage battle and the fight over state aid during a coronavirus pandemic that has claimed the lives of more that a half -million Americans.

The Democrats control the House, the Senate, and the White House.

In large part, the bill provides for $1,400 for payments to individuals, extends emergency unemployment through the summer, and increases federal health insurance subsidies.

Republicans say that Congress has already handed out $ 4 trillion in relief since the virus hit the U.S. last March and that the proposed legislation is too costly.

Democrats argue that it is a necessary rescue package designed to strengthen a struggling economy and to give some financial and other relief to those impacted by the deadly virus for which there is finally a vaccine.

 

Clevelandurbannews.com and-Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, Ohio's most read Black digital newspaper and Black blog.Tel: (216) 659-0473 and Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. Kathy Wray Coleman, editor-in-chief, and who trained for 17 years at the Call and Post Newspaper in Cleveland, Ohio. We interviewed former president Barack Obama one-on-one when he was campaigning for president. As to the Obama interview, CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE AT CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM, OHIO'S LEADER IN BLACK DIGITAL NEWS.