The relief package was approved after a 219-212 vote, and will now go to the Senate. The money is aimed at galvanizing a still-faltering US economy.
Democrats have said the relief bill will provide quick, decisive actionImage: Captital Pictures/picture alliance
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The US House of Representatives approved a $1.9 trillion (€1.57 trillion) coronavirus stimulus fund in the early hours of Saturday morning.
Lawmakers passed the bill — aimed at giving money to individuals, businesses, states and cities hit hard by the pandemic — on a narrow, near party-line vote of 219 to 212.
President Joe Biden has been pushing for the relief package, saying it will be used to stimulate the economy and create new jobs.
All Republican representatives voted against the bill, which will now go to the Senate, where many progressive Democrats are also keen on resuscitating a drive for an increase to the minimum wage.
Joe Biden returns to Munich Security Conference in new role
The coronavirus pandemic means the annual Munich Security Conference is reduced to an online forum in 2021. New US President Joe Biden will address world leaders as US Commander-in-Chief — but he has attended before.
Weeks after being sworn in as vice president of the United States, Joe Biden made his first visit to the 45th Munich Security Conference in 2009. There he met German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who at that time had already led Germany for almost four years. More than 300 representatives from 50 countries attended the event that year, the world's largest international security conference.
Image: Peter Kneffel/Epa/dpa/picture-alliance
2013: Biden addresses the conference
Four years later, Joe Biden returned to address the plenary of the conference at Munich's prestigious Bayerischer Hof. By then he had been elected to a second term as vice president along with President Barack Obama. Biden used his speech to call for closer ties between Europe and the United States, including a transatlantic free trade zone. "Europeans are our oldest friends and allies," he said.
With the Syrian Civil War raging, Vice President Biden also took the opportunity to call on Syrian President Bashar Assad to step down. He met with the Syrian opposition leader Moaz al-Khatib, who also attended the conference. But Biden would not commit to further US military intervention in Syria and al-Khatib resigned a few months after the conference.
Image: Tobias Hase/dpa/picture alliance
2013: Biden and Russia
Biden was also instrumental in encouraging Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to meet with the Syrian opposition leader at the 2013 conference. While the meeting took place, Russia did not withdraw its support for Syrian President Assad. Biden emphasized that Russia-US relations were improving, but also noted differences in human rights laws between the two powers.
Image: Tobias Hase/dpa/picture alliance
2015: Biden embraces EU
When Biden next returned to Munich in 2015, relations with the Kremlin were frostier following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The vice president focused on his country's cooperation with the EU. Biden coupled his trip to Munich with a visit to Brussels, where he met European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and EU foreign affairs chief, Federica Mogherini.
Image: Olivier Hoslet/dpa/picture alliance
2015: Trilateral talks
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who had been critical of Russian President Vladimir Putin's actions in Ukraine, was key in securing trilateral talks at the 2015 conference between herself, Biden and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko. Poroshenko has since been replaced and the conflict in Ukraine is ongoing. Biden and Merkel are both speakers at the 2021 Munich Security Conference.
Image: Andreas Gebert/dpa/picture alliance
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Decisive action needed, Democrats say
Democrats have said the still-faltering economy and the more than 500,000 American lives lost to COVID-19 demanded quick, decisive action. GOP lawmakers, they said, were out of step with a public that polling shows largely views the bill favorably.
Republicans, meanwhile, have said the package is too expensive and will funnel funds into areas that are irrelevant to battling the pandemic, like labor unions and Democratic-run states they suggested didn't need money because their budgets had already recovered.
Hard months ahead in El Paso
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If approved by the Senate next week the relief fund will provide payments to private households, finance measures for coronavirus tests and vaccine distribution, as well as provide additional help for those out of work.
The bill directly provides $1,400 checks to most Americans. It would also extend unemployment benefits, set to expire in mid-March, by about six months, as well impose a moratorium on evictions for millions of people.
In reaction to the vote, the House Budget Committee tweeted: "The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 will provide health care workers with the resources they need to vaccinate as many Americans as they can, as fast as they can."
