WASHINGTON - President Joe Biden’s push for a $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill took a step forward on Friday as a U.S. House of Representatives committee unveiled the legislation Democrats hope to pass by late next week.
Biden was set on Friday to tour a Pfizer vaccine manufacturing plant in Michigan amid efforts to ramp up production, with only about 15% of the U.S. population vaccinated against the coronavirus so far. Earlier on Friday, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a fellow Democrat, said his deeply divided chamber will pass the bill before March 14, when the latest round of federal unemployment benefits expire.
Included in the House bill is a controversial proposal to gradually raise the federal minimum wage, now set at $7.25 an hour, to $15 by 2025.