The U.S. House of Representatives just passed an $8.3 billion emergency spending bill to help protect Americans from the impending coronavirus pandemic. It took Democratic leaders, including Speaker Nancy Pelosi, to go from a draft of the legislation to passage just four hours.
Early Wednesday afternoon news broke that House and Senate lawmakers had agreed to the legislation, at that point $7.76 billion – or three times what President Donald Trump had proposed, which by all accounts was grossly deficient.
The bill passed in a 415-2 vote, sending a clear message to the White House that there is bipartisan agreement President Donald Trump is not doing anywhere near enough to control the virus, to test for the virus, and to put containment plans in place.
Eleven people in the US. have already died. The CDC has stopped publishing the number of people who have been tested. That number never broke 500.
The bill moves to the Senate, where it is expected to pass.
Meanwhile, here’s what President Trump has been doing during that same time: