Senate passes relief bill with funding for local governments and DOE

Last night the Senate passed a $2 trillion bill (H.R. 748) aiming to provide emergency funds for federal agencies and relief for individuals and businesses. The bill includes $127.5 million for the Department of Energy.

The legislation provides $99.5 million for the Office of Science “to prevent, prepare for, and respond to coronavirus,” and “for necessary expenses related to providing support and access to scientific user facilities in the Office of Science and National Nuclear Security Administration, including equipment, enabling technologies, and personnel associated with the operations of those scientific user facilities.”

$28 million is provided for Departmental Administration and $3.3 million for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to respond to expenses related to coronavirus.

The bill also includes $150 billion for local governments (with populations above 500,000) to apply for direct payments from the Treasury Department, with each state receiving at least $1.25 billion. The direct payment amounts will be based on a formula that accounts for population and must be used for “necessary expenditures incurred due to the public health emergency with respect to the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19).” 

According to House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD), the House plans to vote on the bill Friday morning.

The full bill text is available here.