Congressional Leaders Say They've Reached a Deal on COVID-19 Relief Package

After months of partisan squabbling, congressional leaders have reached agreement on a roughly $900 billion COVID-19 relief package.

Among its provisions, the package includes a new round of direct payments to qualifying Americans, worth up to $600 per adult and child; a boost in weekly unemployment benefits; and funds for small-business aid and vaccine distribution.

Democratic leaders have emphasized this agreement is a first step that they intend to build on in the new year under the Biden administration.

"At long last, we have the bipartisan breakthrough the country has needed," Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said on the Senate floor Sunday evening. "Now we need to promptly finalize text, avoid any last-minute obstacles and cooperate to move this legislation through both chambers."

McConnell was followed on the floor by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., who said: "Make no mistake about it: This agreement is far from perfect. But it will deliver emergency relief to a nation in the throes of a genuine emergency."

Though both leaders blamed the other side for the package's months-long delay, Schumer said the deal was forged after "weeks of intense, bipartisan negotiation."

It's unclear when the chambers will vote on the package. An additional stop-gap spending bill is likely required, as government funding is set to expire at midnight.

Democrats had wanted to include sizable aid to state and local governments, an item they had to remove from the final compromise, alongside Republicans' concession to drop a liability shield to protect businesses against coronavirus-related lawsuits.

It would be the first major piece of legislation in response to the coronavirus pandemic since the $2 trillion CARES Act passed in March.

Read the rest of the NPR story, here.

— Barbara Sprunt, NPR