WASHINGTON, March 12 — United States President Joe Biden on Thursday signed the US$1.9-trillion (RM7.8 trillion) Covid-19 relief bill into law, after weeks of partisan fighting in the Congress, marking the first legislative victory for Biden since he took office.
The signing came one day after the House of Representatives approved the measure in a starkly partisan vote of 220-211. Last week, the evenly split Senate narrowly passed the bill by a vote of 50 to 49, reported Xinhua news agency.
Meanwhile, a survey recently released by the Pew Research Centre showed that there is broad public support for the relief package, with 70 per cent of Americans saying they favour the legislation.
“The United States, in the Congress, is more polarised than the American people,” Jeffrey Sachs, an economics professor at Columbia University and senior United Nations advisor, told Xinhua Wednesday.
“The American people have actually a broad consensus, let’s get on with our lives. Let’s have control of the pandemic. Let’s have an increased role of government, but the political divide between the Democrats and Republicans is very strong,” Sachs said.
The measure, the sixth coronavirus-related legislation since the outbreak more than a year ago, includes funding for Covid-19 vaccination and testing, extra unemployment benefits, direct payments to working Americans, support for small businesses, state and local governments, along schools.
— Bernama
