Coronavirus Stimulus Package: 5 Things It Means For You

WASHINGTON, DC — After days of tumultuous negotiating, the U.S. Senate passed the largest relief legislation in the nation's history, a $2 trillion package to help American workers and businesses affected by the ongoing new coronavirus pandemic.

The package now goes to the House of Representatives and, if passed there, would go into law with the signature of President Donald Trump. The legislation is intended to prop up the U.S. economy, help American households and bolster the health care system.

A last-minute dispute over unemployment insurance delayed a final Senate vote expected earlier Wednesday, The New York Times reported. It passed Wednesday not long before midnight.

Four Republican senators tried and failed to amend the bill, which would provide a substantial expansion of unemployment insurance, because, they said, it could lead to layoffs and incentivize workers to collect unemployment payments rather than take a job.

Here are five things to know about the aid package as originally agreed to and what it could mean for you:

1. Checks Directly To Taxpayers: The package provides a one-time payment of $1,200 per person that would apply equally to workers with incomes up to $75,000 per year before phasing out and ending altogether for those earning more than $99,000 per year, The New York Times reported. Families would receive an additional $500 per child. Checks could arrive in about three weeks.

2. Expanded Unemployment Benefits: Unemployment benefits will be expanded to replace the salary of furloughed workers for four months, rather than the three months first proposed. Furloughed workers would get the usual state unemployment, plus a one-time, $600 add-on. Unemployment benefits also will be extended for 13 additional weeks.

3. Small Business Help For Those That Keep Employees: The package also implements a $350 billion program for small businesses to make payroll while workers are forced to stay home. Federally guaranteed loans will be available at community banks to small businesses that pledge not to lay off their workers. The loans would be available during an emergency period ending June 30, and they would be forgiven if the employer continued to pay workers for the duration of the crisis, the Times reported.

4. Help For Hospitals: The package would support U.S. health care by providing $130 billion to hospitals expecting an influx of sick patients, according to the Times.

5. Corporations And Government Shares: The package provides $500 billion in loans and loan guarantees to corporations, states and cities to try to ease the virus’s economic impact. Of that amount, $425 billion is supposed to go to businesses, cities and states, The Wall Street Journal reported, and an additional $50 billion would go to passenger airlines. A bailout of that size could delay a hard choice for U.S. airline officials — who, without any government support, could be forced to temporarily halt U.S. commercial air travel and furlough close to 100,000 employees in an effort to save cash.

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