US House to pass $500 b coronavirus bill as next fight looms

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. House of Representatives returned to Washington on Thursday to pass a $484 billion coronavirus relief bill, funding small businesses and hospitals and pushing the total spending response to the crisis to an unprecedented nearly $3 trillion.

The measure is expected to receive solid bipartisan support in the Democratic-led House, but threatened opposition by some members of both parties forced legislators to return to Washington despite stay-at-home orders meant to control the spread of the virus.

The Republican-led Senate passed the legislation on Tuesday by unanimous consent, so senators did not have to travel.

Approval by the House will send the latest relief bill to the White House, where Republican President Donald Trump has promised to quickly sign it into law.

The bill - which would be the fourth passed to address the crisis - provides funds to small businesses and hospitals struggling with the economic toll of a pandemic that has killed more than 47,000 Americans and thrown a record 26 million out of work over the past five weeks, wiping out all the jobs created during the longest employment boom in U.S. history.

“This is really a very, very, very sad day. We come to the floor with nearly 50,000 dead, a huge number of people, and the uncertainty of it all,” Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said as debate began.

Congress passed the last coronavirus relief bill, worth more than $2 trillion, in March, with overwhelming support from members of both parties. It was the largest such funding bill ever passed.

But the two parties have set the stage for an angry fight over additional funding for state and local governments reeling from the impact of lost revenue after Republicans refused to include it in the current relief bill.

Trump has said he supports more funding for states, and has promised to back it in future legislation.

But congressional Republicans have resisted. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell suggested in a radio interview on Wednesday that states could go bankrupt, but said later he did not want states to use federal funds for anything unrelated to the coronavirus.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo called the bankruptcy proposal “one of the really dumb ideas of all time” during a regular news briefing.