More than two months after House Democrats proposed a $3 trillion HEROES Act coronavirus relief package to supplement the existing CARES Act passed in March, Senate Republicans countered this week with an outline for their $1 trillion HEALS Act. The latter emphasizes money for schools; liability protections for businesses; a second round of one-off stimulus checks for individuals and households; reduced unemployment benefits in favor of return-to-work incentives; and guidance for another iteration of the Paycheck Protection Program, among other items.
The HEROES Act, meanwhile, stressed a continuation of existing unemployment subsidies, enhanced individual stimulus payments and greater allocations toward state and local governments and healthcare workers, to name a few of its core tenets.
