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U.S. NEWS Monday 7 deceMber 2020
Lawmakers say COVID-19 relief bill won't offer $1,200 checks

WASHINGTON (AP) — With remain.
time running out, lawmak- Sanders and Rep. Alex-
ers on Sunday closed in on andria Ocasio-Cortez, D-
a proposed COVID-19 re- N.Y., said last week they
lief bill that would provide wouldn't support the $908
roughly $300 in extra fed- billion proposal if it did not
eral weekly unemployment include checks for families,
benefits but not another and were joined by Sen.
round of $1,200 in direct Josh Hawley, R-Mo. Sand-
payments to most Ameri- ers and Ocasio-Cortez are
cans, leaving that issue for also against shielding busi-
President-elect Joe Biden nesses from lawsuits claim-
to wrestle over with a new ing negligence for COV-
Congress next year. ID-19 outbreaks, a provision
The $908 billion aid pack- pushed by Republicans.
age to be released Mon- While favoring the $1,200
day would be attached to checks, Biden said the
a larger year-end spend- emerging compromise was
ing bill needed to avert a "immediately needed" and
government shutdown this that additional assistance
coming weekend. In this Feb. 5, 2020, file photo, Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., speaks with reporters on Capitol Hill in could follow later.
The cash payments were Washington. On Sunday, lawmakers in-
popular when they were Associated Press volved in the negotiations
first distributed after the said the direct payments
pandemic hit, and Biden only way to reach agree- and nearly double the $500 Donald Trump would em- would have to wait until af-
on Friday had expressed ment with Republicans who billion "targeted" package brace it as well. ter Biden is inaugurated on
hope that a second wave are putting firm limits on the proposed by Senate Major- The proposal is expected Jan. 20. At that time, Biden
might come after weekend bill's final price tag. ity Leader Mitch McCon- to include about $300 per will face a new Congress
negotiations. "The $1,200 check, it cost nell, R-Ky. week in bonus federal un- as vaccines are being dis-
But senators involved in the we believe nationally Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., employment payments, tributed, with a narrowed
talks said the checks won't $300 billion to give you an agreed that a new round providing relief just as Democratic majority in the
be included as part of idea," he said. "The Demo- of direct checks "may be emergency aid payments House and a closely divid-
the compromise, even as crats have always wanted a go" at some point. "This is at regular benefit levels are ed Senate potentially split
Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., a larger number, but we not a stimulus bill, it's a relief set to expire at year's end. 50-50 if Democrats are able
and others said that could were told we couldn't get bill," he said. "And it's some- It would extend a freeze on to prevail in two runoff elec-
cause them to oppose the anything through the Re- thing for the next three to evictions for people who tions in Georgia on Jan. 5.
measure. publicans, except this $900 four months to help those in cannot pay their rent and Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va.,
Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, billion level." greatest need." reauthorize the Paycheck said Sanders was not in-
the second-ranking Demo- The plan being worked on Both he and Durbin said Protection Program to give volved in the negotiations
crat, indicated that exclud- by a group of Republican that McConnell has shown a second round of subsi- and "his characterization
ing the checks while assur- and Democratic senators is interest in the bipartisan ef- dies to businesses struggling is just not accurate" about
ing small-business aid and less than half of the Demo- fort, and Cassidy said he through the pandemic. the potential liability pro-
renters' assistance was the crats' push of $2.2 trillion was hopeful that President Still, potential sticking points tections for businesses. q

Fire guts historic church home to New York's Liberty Bell

By LUIS ANDRES HENAO are crushed like our doors tan since 1729.
NEW YORK (AP) — A historic are crushed," said the Rev. The bell tower houses New
church in lower Manhat- Jacqueline J. Lewis. "But York's Liberty Bell, which
tan that houses New York's we know how to be the pealed to mark the birth of
Liberty Bell and whose church, and we know that the nation in 1776 and has
congregation dates to the God is God, yesterday, to- since been rung for the in-
city's earliest days was gut- day and tomorrow." augurations and deaths of
ted by a massive fire early The fire department said American presidents and
Saturday that sent flames in an Instagram post that events such as remem-
shooting through the roof. there were four minor inju- brance of the Sept. 11 at-
The Middle Collegiate ries to firefighters and that tacks, according to the
Church in the East Village marshals were investigating church.
burned before dawn after the blaze. Lewis believed the bell
a fire spread from a five- Built in 1892, the church is survived the fire but was
story vacant building adja- home to the oldest con- not certain. Church min-
cent to the church around gregation of the Collegiate ister Amanda Ashcraft Firefighters work to extinguish the fire erupted from a building
next to the Middle Collegiate Church on Saturday, Dec. 5, 2020
5 a.m. Flames shot from the Churches of New York, told WABC that the Tiffany in New York.
roof and the church's state- which date to the Dutch stained glass windows were Associated Press
ly front window glowed settlement of the island in gone.
from the conflagration in- the 1620s, according to the Mayor Bill de Blasio tweet- rebuild." "Our church has been
side. church's website. ed that the fire was "heart- The fate of the church worshipping digitally since
"We are devastated. We The Middle Collegiate breaking" and pledged: building is unclear, Lewis March 15," Lewis said. "And
are gutted like our build- Church had been in two "We'll do whatever we can said, but the ministry will that's what we'll be doing
ing is gutted; our hearts other locations in Manhat- to help Middle Collegiate continue. tomorrow."q