President Biden Signs Sweeping Stimulus Package Into Law

The $1.9 trillion relief bill is among the largest anti-poverty measures in US history.

Andrew Harnik/AP

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.

President Biden signed his $1.9 trillion COVID relief package into law Thursday afternoon, pumping billions of dollars into combating the pandemic and paving the way for hundreds of millions of Americans to receive $1,400 checks.

“This historic legislation is about rebuilding the backbone of this country, giving people in this nation—working people, middle class folks, the people who built the country—a fighting chance,” Biden said before signing the bill into law.

The legislation includes monthly payments to families with children up to income thresholds of $115,000 for a single parent or $150,000 for a couple. Though temporary, this game-changing provision, which mirrors the subsidies available to parents in several prosperous European nations, is expected to cut child poverty nearly in half.  

The Senate passed a revised version of the bill after a marathon vote this weekend, and the House approved the Senate version yesterday. The bill had no Republican support in either chamber. Biden’s signing comes a day earlier than initially planned.

The Senate’s most significant changes to the original text of the legislation were limiting the eligibility for stimulus checks from $100,000 annual income for individuals to $75,000; keeping unemployment payments at $300 per week, instead of $400, through September 6, while making $10,200 in benefits nontaxable; and exempting student loan forgiveness from income taxes through 2025. The Senate also dropped language that would increase the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour, after some Democratic senators signaled that they were unwilling to support that provision.

WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

payment methods

WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate