U.S. President Joe Biden has signed into a law a $1.9tn economic relief bill that aims to help Americans impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The COVID-19 relief package, one of the largest such bills in U.S. history, passed Congress on Wednesday without a single Republican supporter.
It includes $1,400 payments, an extension of jobless benefits, and a child tax credit. President Biden said the package will rebuild “the backbone of this country.”
Unemployment in the United States has skyrocketed over the last year amid the coronavirus crisis, with a current rate of 6.2%, according to the Labor Department.
The bill has been mostly popular among Americans. A March Pew Research Center poll found that 70% of U.S. adults surveyed expressed support for the bill, including 41% of Republicans.
President Biden had originally planned the bill signing for Friday, but it was moved forward after “Congress enroled the bill more quickly than we anticipated,” White House spokesperson Jen Psaki said in a tweet.
