New Mexico lawmakers passed a coronavirus relief bill to help people who are struggling due to the pandemic.
The bipartisan bill was passed on Tuesday and will provide all unemployed New Mexicans with a check of $1,200 and up to $50,000 for certain businesses, according to CBS News. The bill will also provide smaller checks to undocumented workers.
Republican lawmakers hoped to provide aid for low-income essential workers, but their Democrat counterparts said federal guidelines wouldn’t allow that to happen. Democrats said they’d address the issue when the legislative body is back in regular session in January.
Most of the $330 million in the bill is coming from federal relief funding previously assigned to the state. They had $319 million in unspent funding that was set to expire, and they found another $10 million in state general funds.
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said the relief bill will help New Mexicans “who have real issues about keeping food on their table, a roof over their head. We want New Mexicans in so many ways to be made whole.”
The relief bill comes as the country is experiencing a sharp rise in COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations, and deaths. New Mexico set emergency health orders that do not allow “more than 5 individuals who do not regularly reside with one another” to congregate until Nov. 30, effectively changing how some may celebrate Thanksgiving.
Lujan Grisham admitted that the rule is unenforceable.
“You can’t enforce that. There is no way, anywhere in the country, we’re going to be able to say, ‘Look, you brought another household together. There [were] 10 of you having Thanksgiving dinner. But we are hopeful that people will really take heed,” she explained.
The federal government passed a massive coronavirus relief bill in the spring, however, Democrats and Republicans were unable to come together to pass a second stimulus package in the fall. Democrats wanted significantly more money while Republicans sought to pass a skinnier stimulus bill arguing Democrats were looking to stuff it with non-coronavirus spending.
