The $1tn-plus package will also include relief for small businesses and support for healthcare workers and coronavirus patients

The US Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, has introduced emergency legislation to stem the economic fallout of the coronavirus pandemic, saying on Thursday that Republicans were ready to meet their Democratic counterparts to seek an agreement.

The $1tn-plus package will include direct financial help for Americans, relief for small businesses and their employees, steps to stabilize the economy and new support for healthcare professionals and coronavirus patients, McConnell said.

“We are ready to act as soon as agreement with our colleagues across the aisle can be reached,” he said on the Senate floor. “The Senate is not going anywhere until we take action.”

McConnell’s proposal for a stimulus package would issue direct payments of as much as $1,200 to individual Americans, in an effort to provide economic relief. The plan, which is similar to the White House’s stimulus plan, would be one of the largest in modern history.

In a joint statement, Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer said they looked “forward to working in a bipartisan way to deliver for the American people as soon as humanly possible”.

But they also implicitly highlighted the differences between the Republican and Democratic recovery plans, underlining that “Democrats support a plan that puts ‘workers first’”.

“To earn Democratic support in the Congress, any economic stimulus proposal must include new, strong and strict provisions that prioritize and protect workers, such as banning the recipient companies from buying back stock, rewarding executives and laying off workers,” the statement reads.

There are a few notable gaps in the Republican proposal. Those who paid less than $1,200 in taxes in 2018 would receive a smaller rebate, at a minimum of $600. Some of the nation’s poorest families fall into that category.

Those who earn more than $75,000 would also receive a smaller rebate, and people who earn more than $99,000 won’t receive any benefit.

The package bases relief rebates on peoples’ 2018 tax returns. If someone made more than $99,000 in 2018, but much less in 2019, they would not get the benefit. The GOP plan also only calls for a one-time check, while a counterpoint from the Democrats offered recurring checks for the duration of the crisis.

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The Democrats’ proposed plan, which Chuck Schumer presented on the Senate floor, includes a “Marshall Plan” – which borrows its name from the stimulus plan the US developed in the aftermath of the second world war – for hospitals and the healthcare system. It includes broader paid sick leave mandates, help for small businesses, bailouts for workers and full pay for those out of work.

“No bailout that goes to the people at the top. The money should go to the workers,” Schumer said.

In a surprising moment of bipartisanship, the Republican Senator Roger Wicker of Mississippi said he agreed with “so much” of Schumer’s proposal, including that “we need to put workers first”.

“I simply rise today to say this is a time for us to come together as patriots, as Americans and take on the task that has come before us,” he added.

Schumer said whatever package was developed had to include a “massive infusion of resources” for hospitals, and there had to be worker protections in any industry bailouts.

As for the prospect of direct cash payments to individual Americans, Schumer said they needed to be “bigger, more generous, and more frequent” than he had heard Republicans describe.

Michael Tubbs, the 29-year-old mayor of Stockton, California, which launched a universal basic income trial program last year, criticized the McConnell plan, saying that payments should be “closer to universal” since “the crisis will impact everyone”.

“I don’t know what the difference between [an income cutoff of] $99,000 and $100,000 is, especially at at time when we’re laying people off and shutting down industries.”

“We’re in an unprecedented crisis, so we have to have big thinking,” Tubbs said. “This is a New Deal-type moment, in terms of the recession that’s bound to come from this public health epidemic, which we haven’t seen in at least a century.”

A vote could still be days away, said Lamar Alexander, a senior Republican lawmaker.

Leaders in the House of Representatives, meanwhile, are trying to work out new voting procedures that would allow them to reconvene without endangering members after two congressmen, the Utah Democrat Ben McAdams and Florida Republican Mario Díaz-Balart, tested positive for the virus.

Several other House lawmakers, including the Republican whip, Steve Scalise, were in self-quarantine after having been in contact with someone who had tested positive for the virus.

Congress passed an $8.3bn measure earlier this month to combat the coronavirus outbreak and develop vaccines for the highly contagious disease.

On Wednesday, lawmakers approved and Trump signed another $105bn-plus plan to limit the damage through free testing, paid sick leave, and expanded safety-net spending.