House Passes $1.9 Trillion Covid-19 Aid Package; Biden Plans to Sign Friday

WASHINGTON—The House passed a $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief bill and sent it to President Biden for his signature, as Democrats muscled an expansive round of payments to households, businesses and local governments through Congress without any Republican support.

The vote was 220-211.

The relief bill pairs new funds for public-health measures with another dose of economic aid, offering a $1,400 check to many Americans and an extension of a $300 weekly jobless-aid supplement. It includes a one-year expansion of the child tax credit that Democrats hope to make permanent; showers money on schools, vaccine distribution efforts and state and local governments; and provides support to struggling multiemployer pensions, among other measures.

The raft of new aid has buoyed expectations about the speed of the economy’s recovery after a year of Covid-19’s spread has closed schools, placed restrictions on businesses and left more than 500,000 people in the U.S. dead. New cases, hospitalizations and deaths related to Covid-19 have dropped in recent weeks as vaccinations have ramped up.

Democrats have cast the legislation as a necessary step toward bringing the economy back to full strength after the pandemic and extending more aid to working families.