OnPolitics: Will COVID relief money flow to your state?

Thursday, March 4

Newspaper headlines about a stimulus plan and a $100 bill.

Republican Sen. Ron Johnson forces the Senate to read all 628 pages of Biden's COVID bill aloud.

It's Thursday and all eyes are on the Senate as they gear up for 20 hours of debate on President Joe Biden's $1.9 trillion COVID-19 stimulus bill.

But first: The House passed a few bills Wednesday night you might have missed.

•	'We must act now': House passes police reform bill named for George Floyd.
•	The House also passed the For the People Act, which would provide sweeping reforms to protect voters' rights, increase election security, mandate independent redistricting and more.

It's Mabinty, with today's top news.

It's going to be a long weekend on the Hill

The Senate voted Thursday afternoon to begin debate on the stimulus bill, setting the stage for its final passage in the chamber later this week(end?).

Vice President Kamala Harris, in her role as president of the Senate, broke a 50-50 tie to send the bill to debate.

"It's time to move forward with this legislation which will be one of the largest anti-poverty bills in recent history," Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Thursday.

BUT then Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wisc., forced the Senate to begin reading the entire bill aloud on the Senate floor, threatening to further delay the bill's passage as the Senate clerk reads through the hundreds of pages of the bill.

The entire process could take at least 10 hours. Pour one out for those Senate clerks. 🍻

But what about the money?

Outside of the money for stimulus checks, the package also includes $350 billion in aid designed to replenish tax revenue collections that decreased during the pandemic so states and local governments can pay employees and take care of core services.

The most populous states would still generally receive the most money. The smallest states would receive the least. It's the result of a formula used in the bill that largely relies on the number of unemployed citizens in each state at the end of 2020, not overall population, to determine the funding amount for each state.

California, Texas and New York would receive 29% of the $350 billion, according to a USA TODAY analysis.

Here's what else is going on today outside of stimulus relief:

•	Man with feet up on Nancy Pelosi's desk erupts at his Capitol riot hearing
•	Can Gov. Andrew Cuomo survive politically? An inside look at his plans to fight
•	Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett delivers her first opinion in a case involving records disclosure