Congressional leaders could approve a COVID-19 relief package worth about $900 billion.
The proposal includes provisions developed by centrist House and Senate members, including South Dakota’s Dusty Johnson.
Congressional leaders are optimistic about the relief package following a lengthy negotiation session Tuesday night.
South Dakota’s US Representative Dusty Johnson is one of about a dozen lawmakers who worked on the framework for the bill.
Johnson says one provision he supports extends the December 30th deadline for state and tribal government to spend CARES Act money allocated earlier this year.
“Provided things don’t fall apart, that’s going to provide some much-needed flexibility for governments that are trying to act responsibly with these dollars,” Johnson says. “If we make them spend it all in the next two weeks there’s going to be a lot more waste than we want there to be, that’s for sure.”
The bill is not expected to direct any new money to state and local governments as Democrats wanted. It’s also not likely to include Republican-backed business liability protections.
Johnson says he wants to see more funding for an increase in COVID testing and vaccine deployment.
“We need to be up to 3 million tests a day, we’re not,” Johnson says. “I know because we’re seeing footage and hearing stories about people getting the vaccine, there can be a sense that we are at the end. We are not. It’s going to be months and months and months before most Americans have that vaccine. We need to invest in the deployment of that vaccine. We need to make sure that between now and then we’re still being responsible and we’re still being kind to one another and we’re still getting tested when we need to.”
NPR reports that South Dakota Sen. John Thune, a top GOP leader, told reporters they are discussing stimulus checks for individuals of $600 to $700.
