The U.S. Congress on Monday was scrambling to pass a $900 billion coronavirus aid package meant to stimulate a pandemic-hit economy, following seven months of partisan bickering over the measure's contents.
The White House-backed bill includes $600 payments to most Americans as well as additional payments to the millions of people thrown out of work during the COVID-19 pandemic, just as a larger round of benefits is due to expire on Saturday.
"We're going to stay here till we finish tonight," Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told reporters at the Capitol.
At 5,593 pages, the wide-ranging bill, likely the final major piece of legislation for the 116th Congress that expires on Jan. 3, has a net cost of roughly $350 billion, McConnell said. He said more than $500 billion in funding comes from unspent money Congress already had authorized.
The House of Representatives and Senate were aiming to pass the measure by the end of Monday.
An outspoken opponent of deficit spending, Republican Senator Rand Paul, told reporters that he would not attempt to stop or delay passage of the bill as lawmakers rush to get home for the Christmas and New Year's holidays.
The legislation also expands a small-business lending program and steers money to schools, airlines, transit systems, and vaccine distribution.
Parents working at home during the pandemic would be allowed to carry over unused flexible spending account money for children's day care and other expenses for the next two years.
The stimulus package, the first Congress-approved aid since April, comes as the pandemic is accelerating in the United States, infecting more than 214,000 people every day and slowing the economic recovery.
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