San Antonio Express News: House passes coronavirus stimulus bill with billions in relief for Texas
WASHINGTON — Tens of billions of dollars are on the way to Texas after the House on Friday approved the largest stimulus package in the nation's history, $2 trillion aimed at curbing the spread of the coronavirus and stemming its economic damage.
While the full scope of the stimulus spending on Texas is still unknown, the state is on tap for at least $11.2 billion through a $150 billion coronavirus relief fund at the heart of the stimulus, which sends money directly to states and cities coping with the outbreak. But the state will get much more than that.
The stimulus includes billions for hospitals, schools and transit systems — all stretched thin — as well as direct checks to many American taxpayers and forgivable loans for small businesses.
Still, nobody in D.C. is really happy with the historic stimulus. The House's most conservative members, including U.S. Rep. Louie Gohmert, an East Texas Republican, complained about its price tag, saying "$2 trillion is vastly too much money" and charging that it contains some "pet projects."
The most progressive members, including U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a New York Democrat, said it is "shameful" to tie relief for hospitals and workers to a bailout for big businesses.
But like the U.S. Senate that passed the bill without a single objection earlier this week, the House easily passed the package on a voice vote, sending it along to President Donald Trump's desk for an expected signature.
"There should be no one that rises to object in spite of the fact that we know there are challenges in this bill," U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, a Houston Democrat, said. "I hear these words: 'We are scared, we are stressed' — the words of an emergency room doctor. These are the ones that are on the front lines right now today, when we have the largest number of cases" in the world.
"While no one will agree with every part of this rescue bill, we face a challenge rarely seen in American history," said U.S. Rep. Kevin Brady, a Republican from The Woodlands who ran the GOP side of the House debate on the bill Friday morning. "We must ask now or the toll on lives and livelihoods will be much greater."
U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, a San Antonio Democrat, said the bill is "flawed" and "a steep price for Trump's continued delay, denial and deceptions." But he supported it "to help our small businesses stay afloat and immediately sustain the newly unemployed, victims to multiple Trump Administration failures."
Most members of the Texas delegation hauled themselves back to Washington to ensure the package made it through, despite concerns about the virus spreading in the House, where at least two members have tested positive and at least a dozen others — including Houston Democrat U.S. Rep. Lizzie Fletcher, are in self-quarantine.
The bill will be a boon to Texas, expected to receive the second most of any state, behind only California, from the coronavirus relief fund. And it comes as state lawmakers have warned of shortages of medical and protective gear and as 156,000 people filed unemployment insurance claims last week.
The stimulus provides $100 billion for hospitals, $30 billion for schools and more than $1 billion for transit systems.
It will send $1,200 checks to taxpayers earning less than $75,000 and another $500 per child.
It also more than doubles the maximum unemployment benefit in Texas, offering an additional $600 per week to those who lose jobs during the outbreak on top of the current $521 per week maximum benefit in Texas.
That includes gig workers like Christian Murray of Austin, who makes a living delivering food through apps like Uber Eats. While orders are up, restaurants operating with far smaller kitchen staffs are struggling to keep up, leaving drivers like Murray waiting for their orders for up to an hour and limiting how many deliveries they can make in a day.
"You have 20 drivers showing up once, waiting for their orders," he said. "My income for food delivery has already been cut in half, and I'm working ten hours a day, seven days a week."
The stimulus package provides $500 billion in secured loans to affected business. Airlines — including United, which employs nearly 14,000 in Houston alone, and Southwest, with thousands of employees in Texas — would receive at least $29 billion of that. The remaining $454 billion would be available to affected industries across the board, presumably including oil and gas companies.
Businesses with fewer than 500 employees, meanwhile, would be eligible for $300 billion in business interruption loans from the Small Business Administration, forgiven if the business meets certain conditions, such as not laying off their workers.
The legislation also includes language meant to make it easier for Congress to spend money on dredging projects, which could free up funding for the Houston ship channel and other local projects, U.S. Rep. Al Green, a Houston Democrat, said.
Still, it leaves out some relief for the oil and gas industry. The Trump administration had planned to fill the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, buying up to 77 million barrels of crude from U.S. oil and gas producers at a time prices are low and demand is slipping.
But funding for the purchase was pulled out of the stimulus legislation, with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer calling it a, "$3 billion bailout for big oil."
The Department of Energy has since rescinded its order of an initial 30 million barrels of crude.
"This is good legislation. It is not perfect legislation," Green said. "But it is legislation that should pass the House, because it is needed legislation."
House Democrats now plan to work on at least two more coronavirus relief packages, though it remains unclear how big they will be or what exactly they will include. U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro, a San Antonio Democrat, on Friday said those next efforts need to include immigrants, "who work and pay taxes but will receive no check."
"There's still much work to do to make sure that everyone in American society gets help," he said.