Federal Update: Biden Already Facing Pressure to Scale Back $1.9T Relief Plan, Third Stimulus Check: When Could You Get $1,400?, Biden Inheriting Nonexistent Coronavirus Vaccine Distribution Plan

January 22, 2021

  • President Joe Biden’s first COVID-19 package is already facing hurdles in Congress that threaten to force the fledgling administration to curb some of its more progressive aims just one week after the proposal’s debut. While criticisms from the GOP were expected, odds the the bill would pass unedited grew longer after a report quoted Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia disparaging the size of the latest round of proposed stimulus checks.
  • Biden's $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief plan proposes a third round of stimulus checks of $1,400 for most Americans. Yet while that could extend a helping hand to millions of households still suffering from the pandemic's economic fallout, it could be months until the payments arrive, analysts say. The price tag of the relief package is likely to face pushback from Republican lawmakers, but most analysts think lawmakers on both sides of the aisle will back the $1,400 direct payments, which economists view as a lifeline for many cash-strapped workers who lost their jobs or seen their income plummet during the pandemic.
  • Biden and his advisers are inheriting no coronavirus vaccine distribution plan to speak of from the Trump administration, posing a significant challenge for the new White House. In the immediate hours following Biden being sworn into office, sources with direct knowledge of the new administration's COVID-related work said one of the biggest shocks that the Biden team had to digest during the transition period was what they saw as a complete lack of a vaccine distribution strategy under former President Donald Trump, even weeks after multiple vaccines were approved for use in the United States.


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