The guidelines stop short of two key recommendations from scientists advising the government. Those advisers said in July that everyone should limit their added sugar intake to less than 6% of calories and men should limit alcohol to one drink per day.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s move was just the beginning of a saga that is likely to engulf the Senate for the rest of the week. Democrats are pushing for an up-or-down vote on the House bill, while more Republicans see a need for larger stimulus checks.
The coronavirus relief bill adds an additional $300 per week in federal unemployment benefits for individuals for another 11 weeks.
The Treasury Department is able to move more swiftly than usual to deposit checks for as much as $600 into Americans’ bank accounts as a result of its earlier work this spring, when it disbursed larger sums under an earlier stimulus program.
The U.S. House voted overwhelmingly Monday to increase COVID-19 relief checks to $2,000, meeting President Donald Trump’s demand for bigger payments and sending the bill to the GOP-controlled Senate, where the outcome is highly uncertain.
The massive, year-end catchall bill that President Donald Trump signed into law Sunday combines $900 billion in COVID-19 aid with a $1.4 trillion omnibus spending bill and reams of other unfinished legislation on taxes, energy, education and health care.
The massive bill includes $1.4 trillion to fund government agencies through September and contains other end-of-session priorities such as money for cash-starved transit systems and an increase in food stamp benefits.
The federal government could shut down on Tuesday absent Trump’s signature on the attached, $1.4 trillion spending bill to fund operations through Sept. 30, the end of the fiscal year.
The rare Christmas Eve session of the House lasted just minutes, with help for millions of Americans awaiting Trump’s signature on a stimulus bill Congress passed earlier this week.
The bill would have affirmed 3% pay raises for U.S. troops and authorized more than $740 billion in military programs and construction.
If Trump does not sign the $900 billion stimulus package, 12 million Americans will lose unemployment aid after Christmas.
Pfizer’s vaccine was the first to gain approval from the Food and Drug Administration and initial shipments went to states last week.
In a video posted to Twitter, the president called the $600 checks authorized by the bill “ridiculously low” and complained about a list of provisions that he described as “wasteful spending and much more.”
The lawsuit, filed Tuesday by the Justice Department, says the nation’s largest retailer did not properly screen prescriptions at its 5,000 pharmacies. The agency is seeking civil penalties that could total billions of dollars.
Although lawmakers of both parties long agreed that the practice amounted to abusive billing, a lobbying war between doctors and insurers had thwarted a compromise.
Congress has moved to phase out a class of potent planet-warming chemicals and provide billions of dollars for renewable energy and efforts to suck carbon from the atmosphere.
The bill, approved late Monday by the U.S. House and Senate, will deliver long-sought cash to businesses and individuals and resources to vaccinate a nation confronting a frightening surge in COVID-19 cases and deaths.
The $600 stimulus checks are part of the pending legislation, which includes $300 in weekly unemployment benefits for 11 weeks, aid for small businesses, money for vaccine distribution, and a range of other measures.
Recipients of the federal grants including Beech Grove, Lapel, Thorntown and Edinburgh in the Indianapolis metropolitan area.
The tax break for corporate meal expenses has been denounced by congressional Democrats, but they agreed to the provision in exchange for expanded tax credits for low-income families and the working poor.
