Stimulus payment update: Congress finalizes agreement on $1 trillion Coronavirus relief bill

Washington DC. -- Top Capitol Hill decision makers sealed a deal Sunday on an approximately $1 trillion Coronavirus related economic relief package, finally delivering long-overdue help to businesses and individuals and providing financing to deliver covid vaccines to a nation eager for them.

The agreement, announced by Senate leaders, would establish a temporary $300 per week supplemental unemployment benefits and $600 direct stimulus payments to most Americans, along with a new round of subsidies for hard-hit businesses and money for schools, health care providers and renters facing eviction.

Specific items expected in the relief bill include:

$284 billion for the small business loan program Paycheck Protection Program

$25 billion in rental assistance

$600 direct payments per adult and child

$300 enhanced jobless benefits

$13 billion in enhanced Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits

$82 billion for colleges, schools, and for other educational institutions

The Coronavirus aid bill also ends the practice of surprise medical assistance billing

The House was expected to vote on the lawmaking on Monday, said a spokesperson for House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, Democrat Maryland. The House would pass a one-day stopgap spending bill to stop a government shutdown at midnight Sunday. The Senate was likely to vote on Monday, too. legislators were eager to leave Washington and close out a deafening year for Americans.

"There will be another key rescue package for the peoples of United States," Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Republican Kentucky, said in announcing the agreement for a relief bill that would total almost $900 billion. "It's packed with targeted policies to help struggling peoples of America who have already waited too long for relief packages."

The final agreement is the largest financing measure yet. It amalgamate Coronavirus relief with a $1.4 trillion government-wide funding plan and lots of other unrelated measures on taxes, healthcare, infrastructure and education financing.

While Schumer said Democrats would have wanted more financing,

Passage is nearing as coronavirus cases and deaths rising and evidence piles up that the American economy is struggling.

Late-breaking decisions would limit the $300 per week bonus jobless benefits - one half the supplemental federal unemployment benefit provided under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act in March - to 10 weeks instead of 16 weeks as before. The direct $600 stimulus check to most peoples is also half the March payment, subject to the same income limits in which a person's payment begins to phase out after $75,000.

President Donald Trump is supportive, specifically of the push for providing more direct payments. "GET IT DONE," he said in a tweet on the Twitter late Saturday.

It would be the first significant legislative response to the pandemic since the $1.8 trillion Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act passed virtually unanimously in March.

The lawmaking was held up by months of disorder, posturing and bad faith. But talks turned important last week as legislators on both sides finally faced the time limit of acting before leaving form Washington for Christmas holidays India home sides.

A development came late Saturday in a fight over Fed. emergency powers that was resolved by the Senate's upper Democrat, Chuck Schumer of New York, and conservative Republican Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania. That led to a final round of negotiations on other major properties.

Legislators had hoped to pass that bill this weekend and avoid the need for a stopgap spending bill, but progress slowed Saturday as Pat Toomey pressed for the inclusion of a provision to close down the Federal Reserve Bank financial resources. Democrats and the White House said it was too broad mind worded and would have trussed the hands of the incoming Joe Biden's administration, but Republicans rallied to Pat Toomey's position.

Late-breaking decisions would limit $300 per week bonus unemployment benefits - one half the supplemental federal jobless benefit provided under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act in March - to 10 weeks instead of 16 weeks as before. The direct $600 stimulus payment to most people would be half the March payment, subject to the same income limits in which an individual's payment begins to phase out after $75,000.

After the announcement, Schumer and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, democratic California, announced additional details, including $25 billion in living rental assistance, $15 billion for stage, theaters and other live venues, $82 billion for local schools, colleges, universities, and other education faculties and $10 billion for child care support.

The statetwide appropriations bill would fund agencies through i am ok look on lookpplpooo projects. Another addition would extend a batch of soon-to-expire tax breaks, including one for craft brewers, wineries, distillers, small and mid-size businesses.

The end-of-session at Capitol Hill's rush also promised relief for victims of shockingly steep surprise medical bills, a phenomenon that often occurs when providers drop out of insurance companies networks alll over country.

The first Coronavirus vaccines are here New York State

The first Coronavirus vaccines are here. New York State is receiving our first delivery of 170,000 Covid shots this week and the first New Yorkers have already begun to be vaccinated. New York will receive around 346,000 shots of the Moderna-developed vaccine end of  next week. Additional vaccine shots will follow later this month.

Two vaccines have been authorized by the Food and Drug Administration. The first, developed by BioNTech and Pfizer, was approved unanimously by New York State’s independent Coronavirus Clinical Advisory Task Force on Dec. 10th and formally authorized by the Food and Drug Administration on Dec. 11th, 2020. The second, developed by Moderna, was authorized by the Food and Drug Administration and approved unanimously by the Clinical Advisory Task Force on Dec. 18th, 2020.

The first New Yorkers to receive the vaccine will be high-risk hospital healthcare workers (emergency room workers, Intensive care unit staff and Pulmonary Department staff), nursing home residents, nursing home staff, followed by all long-term and congregate care residents and staff, Emergency Medical Services Workers, other healthcare workers, coroners and medical examiners. Staff at every hospital will have access to the first covid vaccine allocation.

While the vaccination process is underway In our region, all New Yorkers should wear safety masks, practice social distancing and avoid small and large gatherings during the coming Christmas holidays and  New year celebrations.

Coronavirus Vaccine: New Jersey Among States Not Receiving Expected Number Of Shots Vaccine

Weehawken, N.J.--Healthcare Professionals were first in line to get vaccinated for the Covid-19 this week, and with Pfizer joining Moderna in being approved by federal government regulators, millions more shots are on the way.

But the roll-out has not been perfect condition.

The vaccines have arrived in all 50 states of America, including New York, beginning the biggest immunization effort in history.

But some states, including New Jersey, are not  getting the expected number of shots.

New Jersey is now getting 20 percent fewer shots than expected of the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines for the month of December with little explanation for the shortfall given to Govanor Phil Murphy.

“Number one, I do not think we have gotten a satisfactory reason why,” Murphy said Friday.

The head Trump administration's Operation Warp Speed, Army General Gus Perna, say sorry Saturday for the undersized deliveries and took responsibility for a “misculacation” that took place about vaccine.

“When we had to decide what was going to eventually be transported out, I had to lower the allocations to meet the releasable shots that were presented to me on time,” General Gus Perna said. “So to the governors, to the governors’ staffs, please accept my personal apology if this was disruptiveness happed in your decision making and in your discussion with the peoples of your great state.”

Perna’s apology came after the Food and Drug Administration authorized the Moderna's covid vaccine for emergency use, offering another weapon in the all nation’s fight against the covid virus.

“We will crush this risings outbreak that has really terrorized us for the last 11 months of this year,” said Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

So far, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says about 272,000 Americans have been vaccinated, but the number of infections continues to spike in the United States with 250,000 more new covid cases reported Friday alone.

This comes as 84 million Americans plan to travel for Christmas holydays around the United States.

Dr. Jake Deutch is an emergency medicine physician and founder of Cure Urgent Care is an affordable walk-in clinic in New York City. He worries peoples are letting their guard down too soon as they can do it.

“Everybody is looking for that loophole into coronavirus vaccnation ‘How can I see my family? What can I do to stay safe from covid virus?’ The only thing that we can do to stay safe is stay our homes,” he told New York based news agency.

Moderna will begin transporting six million more shots all over the America this weekend, reaching Healthcare Centers & Nursing Homes providers by Monday.