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OnPolitics: Is a new round of COVID relief still far away?

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Senate Republicans on Tuesday unveiled a coronavirus relief plan far smaller than what lawmakers on both sides of the aisle spent weeks arguing over. It's a bill that even Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says isn't perfect.

The proposal faces an uphill battle to becoming law as Democrats instantly vowed to block what they called a political ploy to help endangered Republicans in November and not meet the needs of American families and businesses. 

What does it include?  

  • A $300 bolster to weekly unemployment benefits — reduced from a $600 boost that expired in July — that will run through Dec. 27. The amount is what President Trump promised the federal government would provide out-of-work Americans in an executive order last month.
  • Liability protections for businesses, hospitals, churches and schools against some COVID-related personal injury claims.
  • A second round of loans under the Paycheck Protection Program for small businesses. Businesses will have to have less than 300 employees and show at least a 35% gross revenue reduction compared with last year. 
  • A $10 billion loan given to the Postal Service would be forgiven and thus turned into a grant. The USPS would be required to offer a report to Congress on how the virus has increased its expenses, an issue that has drawn scrutiny. 
  • Offers $105 billion through an Education Stabilization Fund for schools as students go back to classes across the country. The bill also includes a two-year tax credit for private schools and other scholarship-granting organizations. 

The estimated $300-billion proposal is dubbed the Delivering Immediate Relief to America’s Families, Schools and Small Businesses Act.

What else is going on? 

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