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| - President Joe Biden's massive relief plan is on the verge clearing Congress with a final vote Wednesday, offering a lifeline for millions of American families and businesses and stimulating an economy digging out from the coronavirus pandemic. Democratic leaders said the $1.9 trillion package, broadly popular with Americans and approved by the Senate at the weekend, heads to the House for likely passage days before a crucial deadline, and culminating a weeks-long negotiation over the cost and scope of the measure. If it makes it to his desk, Biden -- who made the American Rescue Plan his top legislative priority -- could sign the historic bill into law by week's end. But the plan that funds Covid vaccines, preserves unemployment benefits for millions, and sends relief checks of up to $1,400 to most Americans can afford very few Democratic defections. With all Republicans appearing in lockstep against the package, and Democrats enjoying the smallest majority in years in the 435-seat House of Representatives, Biden's party can afford a maximum of four Democratic no votes. In an effort to drive home how it helps the economy, Biden Tuesday visited a business billed as Washington's oldest hardware store, which has benefitted from the Paycheck Protection Program begun under Donald Trump's administration to help businesses stay afloat during the crisis. "We're going to continue this," Biden said of the PPP as he chatted with store staff. Biden's administration will further tailor the program so that it focuses on businesses with 20 employees or fewer, the president said noting that "400,000 small businesses went out of business" during the year-long pandemic. The last Congress plan to fight the coronavirus, which has to date left more than 524,000 dead in the United States and brought the economy to its knees, was enacted in December. It expanded unemployment payments by $300 a week, and extended them through March 14. That deadline has loomed as Biden and congressional Democrats crafted their latest package, but it appears they will meet it and extend the benefits until early September. The House was considering a Tuesday vote but the complications of finalizing the steps on such an enormous bill pushed the process to Wednesday. "It's a remarkable, historic, transformative piece of legislation which goes a very long way to crushing the virus and solving our economic crisis," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, one of the bill's chief champions, told reporters. "It is so exciting as you know because of what it does: vaccines in the arms of the American people, money in their pockets, children safely in schools, workers safely back to work." The bill funds Covid vaccine distribution and research, pours billions into state and local governments, continues eviction and foreclosure moratoriums, increases food aid and the child tax credit, and sets aside $130 billion for schools. Democrats had sought a minimum wage hike to $15 an hour, a provision supported by Biden, but it was jettisoned from the bill when it was ruled ineligible under Senate rules. Progressive Democrats had also pushed for higher supplemental unemployment benefits of $400, but after a last-minute standoff with a moderate Democrat, the Senate kept the payments at $300. With the prospects of the bill's passage rising, the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development sharply raised its 2021 global growth forecast Tuesday amid greatly improved economic prospects. The OECD says it now expects the global economy to grow by 5.6 percent, an increase of 1.4 percentage points from its December forecast. "Global economic prospects have improved markedly in recent months, helped by the gradual deployment of effective vaccines, announcements of additional fiscal support in some countries, and signs that economies are coping better with measures to suppress the virus," it said in a report. The OECD now sees the US economy climbing by 6.5 percent this year, an increase of 3.3 percentage points from its previous forecast. But Republicans remained opposed. Number two House Republican Steve Scalise said Democrats were "pushing a socialist agenda" while "bankrupting the next generation with mountains of debt." mlm/bfm
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