Senate Passes Almost $500bn Bill
Al Grabo for the New York Times
We ran the numbers: There are 2178 news articles covering this topic. 25% (555) are left leaning, 52% (1133) center, 22% (490) right leaning.
On Tuesday, the U.S. Senate unanimously approved $484 billion in relief for the U.S. economy and hospitals hammered by the coronavirus pandemic. While left-leaning articles highlight that Democrats insured that more of the relief money would go to coronavirus testing, right-leaning articles highlight that Republicans tried to pass an expansion of a loan program earlier this month.
The New York Times published a left-leaning article highlighting that at the insistence of Democrats, the measure would provide $25 billion for coronavirus testing and a mandate that the Trump administration establish a national strategy to help states and localities. The article also notes that Governor Andrew M. Cuomo of New York met with President Trump at the White House to press for more federal assistance to expand testing for the virus.
A centrist article by Reuters reports that House Democratic leaders announced that Thursday’s vote on the bill would be followed by a vote to change the chamber’s rules to allow “proxy” voting when necessary. The deal includes $321 billion for a small business lending program, $60 billion for a separate emergency disaster loan program, $75 billion for hospitals, and $25 billion for national coronavirus testing.
New York Post published a right-leaning article reporting that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell sought unsuccessfully to pass a $250 billion expansion of the loan program this month, but was blocked by Democrats who wanted a larger package. During the Senate debate on Tuesday, Senator Ben Cardin (D-Md.) cited reports about large companies taking loans meant for small businesses.