The U.S. Congress will pass a second COVID-19 stimulus package before Joe Biden takes office.

It is uncertain whether the US Congress would pass a second stimulus package before Joe Biden takes office as the negotiations are ongoing.

It is uncertain whether the US Congress would pass a second stimulus package before Joe Biden takes office as the negotiations are ongoing. President-elect Joe Biden is trying to help break a months-long deadlock in Congress over a new installment of pandemic relief. On Dec. 4, Biden seized on a grim new report on unemployment to amplify his call for Congress to act on a bipartisan $900-billion relief bill that emerged in the first week of December. The new proposal is half the size of a package that Democrats wanted but twice as much as Republicans have proposed.

“If we don’t act now, the future will be very bleak,” Biden said, speaking to reporters in Wilmington, Delaware. “Americans need help and they need it now, and they’ll need more to come early next year. But I must tell you, I am encouraged by the bipartisan efforts in the Senate around a $900-billion package of relief.”

The Chicago Tribune noted that, "Congress and the White House agreed to more than $3 trillion in aid for individuals and businesses early this year, but much of that has run out. Efforts to pass another installment of pandemic relief — unemployment assistance, aid to state and local governments, protections against eviction, and more — have stalled for months in Congress in a partisan standoff. The pressure to act has mounted in the face of the infection surge and weakening economy and because several forms of assistance are scheduled to expire on Dec. 31." According to the New York Times, "The stimulus proposal under discussion would send nearly $300 billion in new aid to small businesses, $180 billion to unemployed workers and $160 billion to state, local and tribal governments suffering revenue shortfalls in the pandemic." Biden aldo added that "he believed that Republicans would see a need to work with his administration to pass another package this winter, because, he said, “The country’s going to be in dire, dire, dire straits if they don’t.”

Also referencing the unemployment report, Speaker Nancy Pelosi showed hopes about a stimulus plan at a news conference in the Capitol. The conference was a day after she and Senator Mitch McConnell, the majority leader, agreed to find an agreement that could be merged with an enormous year-end spending package.

At the time of writing, it is unverifiable whether a stimulus package could be released in the US before the end of 2020.

The COVID-19 pandemic has given rise to a lot of potentially dangerous misinformation. For reliable advice on COVID-19 including symptoms, prevention and available treatment, please refer to the World Health Organisation or your national healthcare authority.