Congress approved the latest round of pandemic aid last night, passing both the House and Senate by comfortable margins, the Wall Street Journal reported. It passed the House on Monday evening by a 359-53 vote, and then, later that evening, the Senate by a 92-6 vote. The bill now heads to the White House for final approval.

The 5,593-page doorstop of a bill is tucked inside a wider appropriations bill that temporarily funds the government. The headline provisions include $300 per person in supplemental unemployment benefits; $600 direct payments to most Americans (plus $600 for each dependent); $25 billion in renters' assistance, plus an extension of the eviction moratorium until the end of January 2021; and $284 billion for a new round of Paycheck Protection Program loans and $50 billion for Economic Injury Disaster Loans.

The Treasury secretary said that Americans should start receiving checks sometime after Christmas.

The bill also contains a number of tax provisions. It continues the Employee Retention Credit; allows taxpayers to use their 2019 rather than their 2020 tax information for certain credits; expands renewable energy tax credits; allows new deductions for business meals; creates a five-year extension of tax incentives for hiring in low-income areas and hiring those from disadvantaged groups; and makes permanent cuts to excise taxes on beer, wine and spirits that had been set to expire at the end of the year.

There's also $9 billion for health care providers, $4.5 billion for mental health care, $1 billion for the National Institutes of Health to conduct more research on the virus; $82 billion for school; $22 billion for testing and tracing;  $20 billion for vaccine purchases and distribution; $17 billion for the airline industry; $12 billion for small bank; $15 billion for independent movie theaters, live entertainment venues and cultural institution; $13 billion for farmers and ranchers; $15 billion for rail and other mass transit; and  $10 billion in extra funding for the postal service.

As one might imagine, Democratic leaders said the bill was a good start but insufficient on its own to address the pandemic and its attendant economic chaos, and some Republican leaders said the bill was too expensive. The Journal also noted that the deal was only made after one more compromise: narrowing the scope of the Federal Reserve's lending powers. While the central bank can still set up new ending facilities on its own, it can no longer replicate the programs it developed in March without congressional approval.