'Ask the virus': Pelosi sets stage for more COVID relief spending beyond pending $1.9T bill
"We will have legislation to address it for as long as it's there," Pelosi said, referring to the coronavirus.
By Nicholas Ballasy
Updated: March 9, 2021 - 11:29pm
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is setting the stage for more COVID-19 stimulus spending ahead of the final vote on President Joe Biden's $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan.
Pelosi was asked if the $1.9 trillion stimulus bill, the second largest rescue bill in U.S. history, would be the last coronavirus rescue legislation that Congress passes.
"You're just going to have to ask the virus," Pelosi said on Tuesday ahead of the scheduled vote on Wednesday. "If it stops mutating, if it stops spreading and therefore mutating, then this will be and some of the provisions in here that have a fuse like the expanded, the enhanced unemployment insurance benefit that goes until the fall, we'll just see where we are then."
Pelosi was referring to the temporary weekly federal unemployment payments Congress has provided during the pandemic. A weekly federal benefit of $300 will be paid on top of state jobless benefits in the Biden bill through Sept. 6. Recipients will also be able to receive a tax waiver on $10,200 of unemployment payments.
The virus is "not anything that anybody can predict," said Pelosi. "It's just a question of the science, and we will have legislation to address it for as long as it's there. What's interesting about this virus is that it's resourceful, it mutates, it has variants, and so too must we be resourceful and resilient in how we deal with it, but we will be on top of it."
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https://justthenews.com/government/congress/pelosi-sets-stage-more-covid-stimulus-spending-ahead-vote-bidens-19t-plan
