Tag: COVID-19

What’s in the COVID-19 relief bill, and what’s not in it

WASHINGTON — Congress is set to pass a massive bipartisan emergency relief bill that’s intended to aid Americans affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Summaries from House Democratic appropriators say it includes:

Direct payments

—$166 billion in another round of economic impact payments that will go directly to Americans.

—$600 stimulus checks for individuals that begin phasing out at an income of $75,000 and $1,200 for married couples phasing out at an income of $150,000, as well as $600 for each child dependent. Continue reading.

Democrats say more COVID relief needed after current measure becomes law

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Democrats are arguing that more coronavirus relief legislation will need to be enacted early in the incoming Biden administration, even as they tout the $900 billion package that lawmakers unveiled on Monday.

Democrats are highlighting provisions in the agreement that they fought for, including extended unemployment benefits, a second round of direct payments and rental assistance. But they wanted the package to be bigger and say the relief in the $900 billion measure is insufficient.

“I would hope that as we see the need for what we have done in this nearly $900 billion legislation that we’ll vote on today, that everyone understands it’s a first step,” Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said on the House floor Monday. Continue reading.

Gov. Walz and Lt. Gov. Flanagan Update: December 23, 2020

Governor Walz, Lieutenant Governor Flanagan Encourage High School Youth Impacted by COVID-19 to Apply for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance

On Monday, Governor Tim Walz, Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan, and Department of Employment and Economic Development  Commissioner Steve Grove facilitated a virtual roundtable discussion with high school youth to encourage student workers who have been laid off due to COVID-19 to apply for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA).

High school students who’ve lost their job due to COVID can apply for unemployment at uimn.org.

Governor Walz Updates Minnesotans on COVID-19 Vaccine Distribution

On Tuesday, Governor Tim Walz joined the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) to provide updates on the COVID-19 vaccine distribution in Minnesota. 

On Monday, December 18, the first COVID-19 vaccine shipments arrived in Minnesota. Governor Walz visited the Minneapolis Veterans Affairs Medical Center to greet the very first shipment’s arrival. On Tuesday, December 19, the Governor returned to the Minneapolis Veterans Affairs Medical Center to applaud as the Minneapolis VA administered their first vaccine to nurse Thera Witte. In the past week, almost 3,000 frontline health care workers have been vaccinated for COVID-19.

Continue reading “Gov. Walz and Lt. Gov. Flanagan Update: December 23, 2020”

Congress passes massive coronavirus relief and government spending package

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The House and Senate passed a $900 billion coronavirus relief bill and a $1.4 trillion government funding measure Monday night after months of gridlock on Capitol Hill.

Why it matters: The bill’s passage comes before many of the existing coronavirus relief measures were set to expire on January 1. It also staves off a government shutdown.

The big picture: While the plan is roughly half the size of the $2.2 trillion CARES Act Congress passed in March, it is still one of the most expensive rescue packages in modern history. Continue reading.

Millions of Christmas presents may arrive late because of Postal Service delays

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Unprecedented package volume has paralyzed the agency, leading managers to divert vast shipments of mail across the country

Competing crises are slamming the U.S. Postal Service just days before Christmas, imperiling the delivery of millions of packages, as the agency contends with spiking coronavirus cases in its workforce, unprecedented volumes of e-commerce orders and the continuing fallout from a hobbled cost-cutting program launched by the postmaster general.

Nearly 19,000 of the agency’s 644,000 workers have called in sick or are isolating because of the virus, according to the American Postal Workers Union. Meanwhile, packages have stacked up inside some postal facilities, leading employees to push them aside to create narrow walkways on shop floors.

Some processing plants are now refusing to accept new mail shipments. The backlogs are so pronounced that some managers have reached out to colleagues in hopes of diverting mail shipments to nearby facilities. But often, those places are full, too. Meanwhile, packages sit on trucks for days waiting for floor space to open so the loads can be sorted. Continue reading.

Daughter of late state Sen. Jerry Relph who died of COVID-19 calls on Senate GOP leader to apologize for his role in father’s death

The daughter of the late state Sen. Jerry Relph, R-St. Cloud, is calling on the Minnesota Senate majority leader to apologize for holding an in-person election victory party last month, which is how her father likely contracted COVID-19 weeks before he died, she said. 

“It was a frivolous and vain action,” said Dana Relph, referring to the Nov. 5 dinner party at a Lake Elmo event center hosted by Senate Majority Leader Paul Gazelka, R-East Gull Lake. “I’m sorry, but celebrating holding onto the Senate in the middle of the pandemic? They were spending money on something like that and then putting people in danger.”

Relph, 42, spoke with the Reformer a day after her father succumbed to complications from the disease, the first Minnesota lawmaker to do so. COVID-19 is particularly deadly to the elderly and those with underlying health conditions. Jerry Relph was 76.  Continue reading.

‘A real mess’: Trump is leaving behind crises and undermining Biden before he takes office

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When President-elect Joe Biden is sworn into office on Jan. 20, the list of crises he will face includes a massive cyber intrusion, a still-raging global pandemic, a slowing economic recovery and a lingering reckoning over the nation’s racial tensions.

President Trump is not making his job any easier and, in several ways, appears to be actively making it harder — going to extraordinary lengths to disrupt and undermine the traditional transition from one administration to another despite the nation’s many crises.

Trump has sought to play down or even deny the still-expanding cybersecurity breach that many experts blame on Russia, even as its impact has spread to a growing number of federal agencies. The delayed and turbulent transition process could complicate the Biden administration’s ability to address the challenge and shore up the nation’s cyber defenses. Continue reading.

Rep. Zack Stephenson (HD36A) Update: December 21, 2020

Dear Neighbors,

As 2020 draws to a close, news of a recent deal on a $900 billion COVID-19 assistance package at the federal level is encouraging. This is good first step toward more economic recovery for our families and businesses, but we know more robust response and recovery measures will be needed until a vaccine is widely available for all who want one.  

I am ready to continue working with my Republican and Democrat colleagues in the State House and Senate to find more local recovery strategies for Champlin and Coon Rapids families and businesses when we convene for session on January 5.

Mississippi River Crossing Study

We’re getting closer to developing a plan for the Northwest Metro Mississippi River Crossing!

Continue reading “Rep. Zack Stephenson (HD36A) Update: December 21, 2020”

Mnuchin says new stimulus payments could go out next week as Congress readies relief bill vote

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House and Senate are rushing to approve the package on Monday

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Monday said millions of Americans could begin seeing stimulus payments as soon as next week as the White House and Congress work to rush a $900 billion spending package into law.

The House and Senate are planning to vote on the measure later in the day, though legislative text for the package was still in development on Monday morning. Final passage in the Senate could be delayed into Monday evening. Lawmakers reached a deal on the bill Sunday. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Monday that lawmakers are “going to stay here until we finish tonight.”

Lawmakers are hoping to package the stimulus measure with other bills into a giant piece of legislation. It would include money to fund the government through September 2021 as well as the extension of various tax cuts, among other things. And lawmakers will only have a short period of time to review parts of the bill before voting on what could end up as one of the largest bills ever to pass Congress.

House panel subpoenas for Azar, Redfield CDC documents

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Top Trump administration health officials were subpoenaed by House Democrats on Monday, after an investigation showed “extensive” political interference with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

“Over a period of four months, as coronavirus cases and deaths rose around the country, Trump Administration appointees attempted to alter or block at least 13 scientific reports related to the virus,” the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis said a letter.

The committee’s chairman, Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.), said he is seeking full, unredacted documents from Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Alex Azar and CDC Director Robert Redfield, after “HHS has made clear that it will not provide a timely and complete response to the Select Subcommittee’s requests on a voluntary basis.” Continue reading.