Biden, Congress focus on COVID-19 relief, immigration bills

After President Joe Biden's frenetic first few days, when he issued dozens of Executive Orders, presidential memoranda, and declarations (mainly rescinding former President Donald's Trump's policies) and with the trauma of the impeachment hearings behind them, the new leader and his congressional allies must turn to the work of passing the massive COVID-19 relief measure and a controversial immigration bill. With supplemental unemployment benefits scheduled to expire by the end of March, Congress is facing increased pressure to get the job done.

Coronavirus hurdles

The $1.9 trillion relief bill's expansive nature has generated criticism in and out of Congress and even among moderate Democrats. Refinements to direct the proposed $1,400 stimulus checks to lowand middle-income families have quieted some but not all of the opposition.

The bill's most costly provisions—writing the checks, continuing the supplemental jobless benefits, and earmarking hundreds of billions of dollars for other coronavirus-related initiatives—aren't the major areas of dispute. That's likely because early polling shows most of the pieces of Biden's American Rescue Plan are popular among voters across party lines, even in the "reddest" communities.