The House passes $1.9 trillion stimulus package, paving the way for Biden to sign it into law later this week

The House of Representatives passed a $1.9 trillion stimulus package on Wednesday, paving the way for President Joe Biden to sign the relief bill this week. It sets up a colossal federal effort to pull the economy out of its worst crisis in generations.

The vote was 220-211; Rep. Jared Golden of Maine was the lone Democrat who did not support the plan. Every House Republican opposed the bill, following every Senate Republican voting against it last weekend. 

The plan’s passage in the lower chamber secures Biden’s first major legislative victory since assuming office nearly two months ago. It also comes a year into a pandemic that has devastated the American economy, throwing millions of people out of work.

The rescue package largely kept its size intact while going through both chambers of Congress.

The Senate approved it on a party-line vote after a marathon stretch of voting on Saturday. It’s shaping up to be among the largest government rescue measures in American history, one which experts at Columbia University project has the potential to cut child poverty by half. 

It would provide $1,400 stimulus payments for most taxpayers; $300 weekly federal jobless aid through early September; fund vaccine distribution and testing; expand the child tax credit; and set up a pot of money for state and local governments.

Early analysis of the rescue plan indicates the vast majority of its benefits are squarely directed at middle and low-income households, and Democrats are increasingly casting it as a historic antipoverty measure.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi called the legislation in a floor speech before the vote as consequential as the Affordable Care Act which President Barack Obama signed in 2010, and one of the “most transformative pieces of legislation” with which she’s ever been involved.

President Joe Biden speaks as he meets with Senators from both parties in the Oval Office on February 11, 2021 in Washington, DC. Doug Mills-Pool/Getty Images

Senate Democrats modified two major parts of the initial House legislation: a minimum wage increase and enhanced unemployment insurance. An increase to a $15-an-hour minimum wage was ejected after the Senate parliamentarian determined the provision violated certain procedural rules. 

Then federal unemployment benefits were scaled back from $400 per week to $300 to placate Democratic moderates. This aid would expire on Labor Day, while also exempting the first $10,200 in jobless aid from taxes. 

Democrats argue the changes didn’t affect the core parts of the bill. “It’s never what you exactly wanted it to be, but in my wildest dreams I wouldn’t think we’d be on the verge of passing something so consequential that’s going to improve the lives of so many people,” Rep. John Yarmuth, chair of the House Budget Committee, told Insider.

The Senate modifications didn’t cause a revolt among progressives in the House. Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota told Insider she believed the bill still reflected many liberal priorities. “We’re going to pass it because we represent constituents that will desperately benefit from the tremendous amount of relief in the package,” she said.

Omar also said in the interview she and other progressive lawmakers would be meeting with the White House soon to strategize on a legislative push for the $15 minimum wage.

The stimulus package’s path through the House and Senate starkly illustrates the chasm dividing Republicans and Democrats. Though Biden campaigned on restoring bipartisanship, Democrats did not succeed in garnering a single Republican vote in either chamber. Democrats applied a tactic called budget reconciliation to approve the bill with a simple majority of 51 votes in the Senate, guarding it from a filibuster.

Instead, White House officials argue the package is bipartisan because it enjoys strong support in various polls and public surveys. Biden, for his part, has stressed the urgency of passing the stimulus bill before unemployment benefits for millions of Americans expire on March 14.

“This nation has suffered too much for much too long,” the president said on Saturday. “And everything in this package is designed to relieve the suffering and to meet the most urgent needs of the nation and put us in a better position to prevail.”

This story will be updated.