House set to vote on $3T relief bill
The House of Representatives is set to vote on a 3 trillion dollar coronavirus aid package on Friday. Yahoo Finance’s Jessica Smith breaks down the latest developments.
Video Transcript
- I do want to start, however, with something else that's going on today and that's the House voting on a $3 trillion stimulus package. Doesn't look like it's going to get beyond that necessarily, but the House is in the midst of debating it now. Our Jessica Smith is in Washington with the details on that discussion. Jess.
JESSICA SMITH: Yeah, Julie, the house will be debating on this today, and then they'll vote later this evening. Right now, they are voting on a measure that could allow proxy voting in the House. But focusing on this stimulus package known as the Heroes Act, this includes assistance to state and local governments, hazard pay for frontline workers, some student loan forgiveness, another round of stimulus checks, extending unemployment benefits. And as you mentioned, it is a $3 trillion package, so there is much, much more. We do not expect this to go anywhere in the Republican-controlled Senate.
And Speaker Pelosi and Democratic leadership is working to build support among their own caucus in the House. There are some progressive Democrats who say this does not go far enough. We don't know if they're actually going to vote against the bill, but there are progressives who say they have issues with it. Then we've also heard from some moderate Democrats who say they will oppose the bill. And of course, we do not expect many Republicans at all to join and support this bill. We expect that most of them to oppose it.
But again, we do expect them to vote sometime this evening. It's going to take longer than usual because they are voting in small groups. They're practicing social distancing, so it's going to be a little more drawn out than what we typically see.
Meanwhile, over at the White House, any minute now, we're expecting to see President Trump. He'll be speaking about vaccine development. The White House has had this program known as Operation Warp Speed as they really try to develop a vaccine for the coronavirus. We expect the president to announce two leaders, who will lead that effort, one of them being a former pharmaceutical executive, another, a military official. Just yesterday, President Trump said that the military would likely be involved in distributing vaccines once they are available. But again, we'll be waiting to hear from President Trump in the next few minutes.
- Hey, Jess, Rick here. Back to the stimulus bill. I think a lot of people wonder, if this bill has no chance of passing the Senate, why is the House doing this anyway? Why don't you explain what you think Nancy Pelosi is trying to accomplish here.
JESSICA SMITH: Yeah, I think Democratic lawmakers are really just trying to show their priorities, what they want to see in whatever the next bipartisan package is. They're showing that these are the issues that are important to them, and why they're kind of putting their marker down of their priorities. But again, the whole democratic party isn't necessarily on board with this, but this is what Speaker Pelosi is wanting to push. She's showing that her party is trying to do something while Republicans have said they want to wait and see how the first round goes how, CARES Act is implemented before they go ahead with another round. But her argument is, no, Democratic lawmakers are wanting to do something now.
- Well, we'll see what all comes of all of that. Jess Smith, thank you very much.
