Congress is also working to enact a COVID-19 stimulus bill before the expiration of relief programs for small business and the unemployed at the end of 2020. A bipartisan group of House and Senate members released a $900 billion COVID-19 economic stimulus proposal in early December, primarily as an effort to break the log jam between the more generous House-passed $2.2 trillion HEROES legislation and the $500 billion “skinny” COVID-19 relief proposal favored by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY). The hope is that this package can ride along with the FY2021 final federal spending legislation referenced above and provide interim relief while a larger, more comprehensive package is worked out in early 2021. The COVID stimulus bill under current negotiation includes:

• $35 billion in relief for health care providers
• $6 billion for vaccine development and distribution
• $10 billion for COVID-19 testing and contact tracing
• Up to $500 million for COVID-related research at NIH.