How Democrats and Republicans came together for a $900 billion COVID-19 relief package

The final agreement would be the largest spending measure yet. It combined $900 billion for COVID-19 relief with a $1.4 trillion government-wide funding plan and lots of other unrelated measures on taxes, health, infrastructure and education. The government-wide funding would keep the government open through September.

The $300 per week bonus jobless benefit was one half the supplemental federal unemployment benefit provided under the $1.8 billion CARES Act in March and would be limited to 11 weeks instead of 16 weeks. The direct $600 stimulus payment to most people would also be half the March payment, subject to the same income limits in which an individual's payment began to phase out after $75,000.

Progress came after a bipartisan group of pragmatists and moderates devised a $908 billion plan that built a middle ground position that the top four leaders of Congress - the GOP and Democratic leaders of both the House and Senate - used as the basis for their talks. The lawmakers urged leaders on both sides to back off of hard-line positions.

* New direct payments up to $600 per adult and child
* Enhanced unemployment benefits, including an additional $300 per week
* $82 billion for colleges and schools, including support for heating-and-cooling systems upgrades to mitigate virus transmission and reopen classrooms, and $10 billion for child care assistance
* $45 billion for transportation assistance, including $15 billion to U.S. passenger airlines for payroll assistance, $14 billion for transit systems, $10 billion for state highway funding and $1 billion for Amtrak passenger railroad
* $25 billion for rental assistance for families struggling to stay in their homes, and an extension of the eviction moratorium.
* $13 billion for food assistance