the united states senate has approved a
1.9 trillion dollar coronavirus relief
plan
president biden says it will give
families struggling to pay their bills
the breathing room that they need the
rescue package narrowly made it through
the chamber
as one democrat threatened to vote
against it but that was prevented
with some last-minute tweaks to the bill
and the decision ultimately went down
party lines
the eas are 50.
the days are 49. the bill as amended
is passed
democrats were jubilant as the
legislation finally
passed after a lengthy debate and the
longest vote in senate history
not one republican backed the stimulus
package
it's been a long day a long night
a long year but a new day has come
and we tell the american people help
is on the way the final bill includes
400 billion dollars worth of one-off
payments to america's taxpayers
it also continues the weekly 300 payment
to those thrown out of work in the
crisis
and there's 350 billion dollars in aid
to state and local governments
that have seen the pandemic blow a hole
in their budgets
for the thousands of residents in this
queen's neighborhood
who've been relying on food handouts for
a year now
the aid package can't come soon enough
many of us have been left without jobs
unable to pay the rent or
bills and so we're barely surviving
it's the first major legislation to pass
through the senate under president joe
biden
afternoon it obviously wasn't easy
it wasn't always pretty but it was so
desperately needed
urgently needed the bill now needs to
clear the house of representatives where
the democrats
hold a slightly stronger majority
for more on this let's get across to
washington dc and our correspondent
carolina chamoy carolina tell us more
about the main provisions of this
package
and who is going to benefit from them if
it does pass through the house as
expected
well the first important point claire as
you already mentioned in this bill
is on the direct payments for all
american citizens and people who are
legal in the united states
who are going to get a check of 1 400
that will be paid directly to them and
the second important point
is about the federal unemployment
insurance that has now be
extended unt until september 6th this
means
that the ones who don't have a job they
are going to get 300
a month until september and this was one
of the main points of
discussion in the senate because
originally this insurance would have
expired on march 14th now it has been
extended until
september and the third point important
point in this bill
are the tens of billions of dollars that
will be allocated to the pandemic
response that means for testing contact
tracing
and also for vaccine distribution and
this is especially important because
biden said this week
that there will be enough vaccines for
every adult in the united states by the
end of may
of course there have been some points
clear of compromise in order to get
this bill through even among democrats
one of the points is for example the big
compromise
and this 15 dollars minimum wage this
was
completely excluded from the bill in
order to get it
through the senate and despite these
compromises the white house will surely
see this as a win of sorts
i mean what does the fact that not a
single republican voted in favor of this
bill
mean for biden's plans for a more
bipartisan approach to politics
well out of anything claire first of all
and this is very important to say
um biden is doing this and this is the
most important policy
that he has been facing especially in
the first months of his
presidency getting checks to the
americans and getting shots in their
arms
the this this was his main promise and
he is getting this through
he has achieved it and in this case the
bipartisan way is secondary
but there are other things that are
coming up soon our biden will have to
fight
uh for a bipartisanship like the
immigration reform and the
infrastructure reform
and uh these are reforms that will
definitely require two-thirds
of the votes in the senate so there is
not going to be a way
to get those bills through without a
bipartisanship
and this um the instrument he used now
the reconciliation process
that he used to get the covet relief
built through
works only in very specific cases like
for example this one
when the bill is linked to the federal
budget
our correspondent carolina chimoy in
washington dc thank you so much for that
update
you