The US Congress has passed Joe Biden's record economic relief package, delivering a resounding victory for the president and a desperately needed injection of cash to millions of families and businesses enduring the coronavirus pandemic.
The $1.9 trillion plan, which funds Covid-19 vaccines and sends stimulus payments of up to $1,400 to most Americans, passed the House of Representatives with zero support from Republicans, who accused President Biden of abandoning his Inauguration Day pledge to unify the nation.
The White House said Mr Biden - who made the American Rescue Plan his top legislative priority - planned to sign the measure into law on Friday, days before unemployment benefits were scheduled to expire for millions of people.
He said the passage of the stimulus bill in Congress, gave American workers a "fighting chance".
"This legislation is about giving the backbone of this nation - the essential workers, the working people who built this country, the people who keep this country going - a fighting chance," President Biden said in a statement.
To Speaker Pelosi, Majority Leader Schumer, and everyone who voted for the American Rescue Plan — thank you. This is a historic victory for the American people. pic.twitter.com/RPZ04GTDOg
— President Biden (@POTUS) March 10, 2021
Republican lawmakers criticised what they call the bill's "socialist agenda" and its massive cost, saying more than 90% does not go to directly combatting Covid-19.
One congressman warned that the $1.9 trillion price tag amounts to $5,487 for every man, woman and child in the country.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy called the plan "a long laundry list of left-wing priorities that predate the pandemic and do not meet the needs of the American families".
No Republican input to aid bill
The coronavirus aid bill was crafted without Republican input, but nevertheless, Republican-leaning states are due to get a disproportionate share of many of its benefits.
States that voted for former President Donald Trump in the November election are due to get a larger amount of education and child-care aid per resident than those that backed Mr Biden, according to estimates from two congressional committees.
Residents of Republican-leaning states, which tend to have lower household incomes, also are likely to get larger stimulus payments and tax breaks as well, according to an independent research group.
That would be enough to offset the smaller share of state and local aid Trump-backing states are due to receive compared to states that backed Biden, which is calculated on a different basis.
Overall, Republican-leaning states would get a net $3,192 per resident from these provisions, which account for slightly more than $1 trillion of the bill's $1.9 trillion cost.
Democratic-leaning states would get $3,160, according to a Reuters analysis.
Republicans have characterised the package as a Democratic wish list, highlighting provisions that would help federal employees and union pension funds. But the Reuters analysis shows that its benefits would flow to conservative and liberal areas alike.
Much of the aid is targeted at lower-income Americans who have suffered disproportionately during the coronavirus crisis. That helps low-wage, Republican-leaning states including Louisiana and Mississippi more than those in higher-income, Democratic-leaning states like Maryland and New Jersey.
Democrats had urged Republicans to back the bill on those grounds. But every Republican in the House and Senate voted against the bill, viewing it as overly expensive and poorly targeted.
Some 70% of American adults - including half of Republicans - support the measure, according to a Reuters/Ipsos national opinion poll conducted between 8-9 March.
An enhanced safety net
President Biden's American Rescue Plan provides funding for vaccine distribution and medical supplies to fight the Covid-19 pandemic, which has killed more than 520,000 Americans to date.
It also funds a broad range of safety-net programs to help those who have lost their jobs or suffered from the economic upheaval that came in the virus's wake.
It is impossible to say at this point where much of that assistance - disaster relief funding, small-business aid, help for struggling restaurants and live music venues - will end up.
Democratic-leaning states like California which have experienced higher levels of unemployment would benefit more from enhanced jobless payments than Republican states like South Dakota, where unemployment stood at 3% in December. That could change with fluctuations in local employment levels.
The bill extends many safety-net programs like rental aid and food assistance that were due to expire.
But Democrats who control both chambers of Congress changed some of those programs this time around to better target low-income Americans.
State and local aid is distributed based on unemployment and poverty levels in the new bill, rather than population - a shift that has left Republican governors feeling short-changed.
Democrats also pared back direct stimulus payments to exclude families that earn more than $160,000 or individuals who earn more than $80,000. Previous bills had cut off levels of $200,000 and $100,000 respectively.
The Biden bill also expands tax breaks for children and low-income workers to encompass poor households that did not qualify before. Experts say the expanded child tax credit alone could cut child poverty nearly in half.
