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The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday approved the final version of the 1.9-trillion-U.S.-dollar COVID-19 relief bill, sending it to President Joe Biden’s desk for his signature, Trend reports citing Xinhua.
The Democrats-controlled House approved the final relief bill by a vote of 220 to 211 almost along party lines. The Senate passed the bill in a 50-49 vote last week after making changes to the original version passed by the House.
The legislation, known as American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, includes a new round of up to 1,400 dollars of direct payments for most Americans, 350 billion dollars for state and local governments, as well as funding to directly combat the pandemic. It also extends an additional 300-dollar weekly federal unemployment benefit through September.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Wednesday that Biden plans to sign the relief package into law on Friday.
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) on Tuesday predicted that the U.S. economy would expand 6.5 percent in 2021, up from 3.2 percent estimated three months ago.
The U.S. economy contracted 3.5 percent in 2020 as the pandemic depressed consumer spending and business investment, the largest annual decline of U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) since 1946.
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