PBS高端访谈:美众议院将通过1.9万亿美元刺激法案

JUDY WOODRUFF: The U.S. House of Representatives is on the verge¹ of passing a $1.9 trillion COVID relief bill, even after Democrats² suffered a setback³ on one of their key priorities. Our Daniel Bush is here with the latest on where things stand and what comes next. So, hello to you, Dan. First of all, where do things stand with regard to this COVID economic relief?

DANIEL BUSH: Judy, the House is now one step closer towards passing this bill. We're waiting now for a vote that is going to happen at some point later tonight. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is a master at keeping her conference together, even in tough votes. It's expected that this bill will likely pass. There are, of course, some contentious⁴ issues, like minimum wage, as you just mentioned. But there are a lot of things in here that Democrats do want. Let's take a look at some of those big-ticket items, $1,400 in direct payments. Individuals making less than $75,000, couples making less than $150,000 would get the full amount. An additional $400 a week in unemployment assistance. That is up from $300 a week currently. That would extend to the end of August, as well as $350 billion in local and state aid, and $14 billion for vaccine⁵ research. So, there's a lot in this very, very big bill here. Now, if the House passes it later tonight, the action would shift to the Senate. I'm being told that the Senate is preparing to introduce its own version of this bill. Sources are telling me that could happen as early as next week. And Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer wants to get this done by March 14. That's when the current unemployment benefits included in the last COVID bill are set to expire, and he is confident, I'm being told, that he can make that deadline.

JUDY WOODRUFF: So, Dan, meantime, as we have mentioned, an officer of the Senate, the parliamentarian, has ruled that the minimum wage cannot be included in this COVID relief bill. So, where does minimum wage go from here?

DANIEL BUSH: That was a blow to Democrats and to President Biden, no question. A lot of criticism from all quarters in the party for that ruling. Bernie Sanders, senator from Vermont, he will play a role in this going forward in the negotiation⁶ with the Senate, came out with a Senate, saying: "Because of the archaic⁷ and undemocratic rules of the Senate, we are unable to move forward to end starvation wages in this country and raise the income of 32 million struggling Americans. The fight continues." The question now is, how does that fight continue? One option Democrats are looking at is finding a way to essentially⁸ do a work-around, including a different provision that would penalize⁹ businesses that don't pay workers more money. They think, Democrats think that they can get this bill passed through budget reconciliation¹⁰ -- that measure, rather, through budget reconciliation. It remains¹¹ to be seen whether or not they can do that. That is the plan, though. And it does point to these -- this division in the party, Judy, between moderate Democrats in the House, who are a little uneasy about this minimum wage increase -- they think it might hurt small business owners in their districts -- and the progressives in the party, who are putting a lot of pressure on leadership, both in the House and the Senate, to include some form of a minimum wage increase in this COVID relief legislation.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Watching it very closely. Daniel Bush, thank you very much.

朱迪·伍德拉夫：美国众议院即将通过一项1.9万亿美元的新冠肺炎救助法案，即便此前民主党人在他们的一个关键优先事项上受挫。丹尼尔·布什在这里介绍了最新的情况，以及接下来会发生什么。你好，丹。首先，新冠肺炎经济救济的情况如何？

丹尼尔·布什：朱迪，众议院离通过这项法案又近了一步。我们现在正在等待今晚晚些时候的投票。众议院议长南希·佩洛西非常擅长保持会议团结，即使在艰难的投票中也是如此。预计这项法案很可能会通过。当然，也有一些有争议的问题，比如你刚才提到的最低工资。但这里有很多东西是民主党人想要的。我们来看看那些大项目，1400美元的直接付款。个人收入低于7.5万美元，夫妻收入低于15万美元将得到全额。每周增加400美元的失业救济金。这比目前的每周300美元有所提高。这将延长到8月底，以及3500亿美元的地方和国家援助，还有140亿美元的疫苗研究。这张账单很长。如果众议院在今晚晚些时候能够通过，行动将转移到参议院。有人告诉我，参议院正准备提出自己版本的这项法案。消息人士告诉我，这种情况最早可能在下周发生。参议院多数党领袖查克·舒默希望在3月14日之前完成这项工作。就在那时，上一份新冠肺炎法案中包含的当前失业救济金即将到期，我被告知，他有信心能够在最后期限前完成。

朱迪·伍德拉夫：正如我们所提到的，参议院的一位官员，国会议员，已经裁定最低工资不能包含在这项新冠肺炎救助法案中。那么，最低工资标准将何去何从？

丹尼尔·布什：这无疑是对民主党和拜登总统的打击。党内各方对那项裁决提出了许多批评。来自佛蒙特州的参议员伯尼·桑德斯将在与参议院的谈判中发挥作用，他说道：“由于参议院的过时和不民主的规定，我们无法在结束这个国家的低工资和提高3200万挣扎的美国人的收入方面取得进展，战斗还在继续。”现在的问题是，这场斗争如何继续？民主党人正在考虑的一个选择是找到一种基本上可以解决问题的方法，包括一个不同的条款来惩罚那些不给工人更多钱的企业。他们认为，民主党人认为他们可以通过预算和解来通过这项法案——这项措施，更确切地说，是通过预算和解。他们能否做到这一点还有待观察。不过，这就是计划。它确实指出了这些——党内的分歧，众议院的温和民主党人，他们对最低工资的提高有点不安——他们认为这可能会伤害所在地区的小企业家——以及党内的进步人士，他们对众议院和参议院的领导层施加了很大的压力，要求在这项新冠肺炎救助法案中加入某种形式的最低工资增长。

朱迪·伍德拉夫：观察得非常仔细。非常感谢你，丹尼尔·布什。

1 verge   

n.边，边缘；v.接近，濒临

参考例句：

• The country's economy is on the verge of collapse.国家的经济已到了崩溃的边缘。
• She was on the verge of bursting into tears.她快要哭出来了。

2 democrats   

n.民主主义者，民主人士( democrat的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Democrats held a pep rally on Capitol Hill yesterday. 民主党昨天在国会山召开了竞选誓师大会。
• The democrats organize a filibuster in the senate. 民主党党员组织了阻挠议事。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 setback   

n.退步，挫折，挫败

参考例句：

• Since that time there has never been any setback in his career.从那时起他在事业上一直没有遇到周折。
• She views every minor setback as a disaster.她把每个较小的挫折都看成重大灾难。

4 contentious   

adj.好辩的，善争吵的

参考例句：

• She was really not of the contentious fighting sort.她委实不是好吵好闹的人。
• Since then they have tended to steer clear of contentious issues.从那时起，他们总想方设法避开有争议的问题。

5 vaccine   

n.牛痘苗，疫苗；adj.牛痘的，疫苗的

参考例句：

• The polio vaccine has saved millions of lives.脊髓灰质炎疫苗挽救了数以百万计的生命。
• She takes a vaccine against influenza every fall.她每年秋季接种流感疫苗。

6 negotiation   

n.谈判，协商

参考例句：

• They closed the deal in sugar after a week of negotiation.经过一星期的谈判，他们的食糖生意成交了。
• The negotiation dragged on until July.谈判一直拖到7月份。

7 archaic   

adj.(语言、词汇等)古代的，已不通用的

参考例句：

• The company does some things in archaic ways,such as not using computers for bookkeeping.这个公司有些做法陈旧，如记账不使用电脑。
• Shaanxi is one of the Chinese archaic civilized origins which has a long history.陕西省是中国古代文明发祥之一，有悠久的历史。

8 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。

9 penalize   

vt.对…处以刑罚，宣告…有罪；处罚

参考例句：

• It would be unfair to penalize those without a job.失业人员待遇低下是不公平的。
• The association decided not to penalize you for the race.赛马协会决定对你不予处罚。

10 reconciliation   

n.和解，和谐，一致

参考例句：

• He was taken up with the reconciliation of husband and wife.他忙于做夫妻间的调解工作。
• Their handshake appeared to be a gesture of reconciliation.他们的握手似乎是和解的表示。

11 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。