House Approves Virus Relief Bill In Early Morning Vote

Politico reports:



The House passed sweeping legislation Saturday to respond to the coronavirus outbreak battering the nation, an overwhelmingly bipartisan vote to expand access to free testing, provide $1 billion in food aid and extend sick leave benefits to vulnerable Americans. The bill’s bipartisan passage, 363-40, was virtually assured when President Donald Trump backed the measure — largely hammered out by Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin — and urged Republicans to support the bill.

Democrats put the bill on the floor shortly after midnight under an expedited process and passed it in the early hours of Saturday morning, sending it to the Senate, which is expected to take it up as early as Monday. The bill is the product of a painstaking effort by Pelosi to pass a measure with bipartisan support rather than a doomed Democrat-only bill that the Senate would have immediately spiked.