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Biden Set to Release Details of Major Pandemic Recovery Package 

Posted on Jan. 11, 2021

President-elect Joe Biden has announced that he will begin pushing for another massive coronavirus relief package immediately after taking office January 20.

The relief package enacted by Congress in December 2020 “was a very important step, but just a down payment,” Biden told reporters January 8. “The price tag will be high,” he added, saying it would “be in the trillions of dollars.”

In addition to funding for the distribution of COVID-19 vaccines and more federal aid to state and local governments, the package would call for “finishing the job” of providing qualifying Americans with a total of $2,000 in economic relief payments, Biden said. The IRS has already begun distributing the $600 checks that were enacted in mid-December 2020 in the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 (P.L. 116-260).

Biden also suggested that he might push for tweaks to the Paycheck Protection Program, arguing that the Trump administration botched its implementation. “Big, well-connected businesses jumped in front of the line and got more relief and got it faster,” while minority-owned and small, family-owned businesses “were often last in line,” he said.

More details of his relief package will be unveiled at a January 14 briefing, Biden added.

David Kamin, who will serve as deputy director of Biden’s National Economic Council, defended the decision to make the relief package deficit-financed during a subsequent briefing with reporters, arguing that economists broadly agree that deficit-financed recovery spending would help the economy and “reduce scarring in the workforce.”

Further, with the current low-interest-rate environment, “we risk doing too little rather than too much,” according to Kamin, a former New York University School of Law professor.

Kamin said Biden would direct the Department of Education to extend the pause on student loan payments and interest for individuals with federal loans. Biden also supports efforts by Congress to cancel $10,000 in federal student loan debt per person as part of a response to the pandemic, he said.

Follow Jonathan Curry (@jtcurry005) on Twitter for real-time updates. 

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