华盛顿——周五晚上，国会通过了为期两天的临时开支法案，避免了部分政府关门为令人沮丧的缓慢的新冠肺炎经济救助一揽子计划的最终谈判争取更多时间。

双方都表示，病毒援助谈判仍在进行中，但消除最终分歧证明是困难的。周末会议正在进行中，众议院领导人希望周日就这一庞大的一揽子计划进行投票，该计划将国会山尚未完成的2020年的大部分工作打包成一个要么接受要么放弃的庞然大物，承诺厚度为一英尺——或更多。

众议院以320票对60票通过了临时拨款法案。参议院几乎立即以声音表决的方式批准了该法案，唐纳德·特朗普总统于周五晚些时候签署了该法案。

参议院多数党领袖米奇·麦康奈尔。尽管民主党人发起了一场协调一致的运动，阻止共和党人控制美联储紧急贷款权力的努力，但双方仍决心达成协议。民主党人表示，共和党的提议将剥夺当选总统乔·拜登管理经济的关键工具。

立法者和助手说，谈判持续到周五晚上，但周六之前不可能达成协议。众议院议员被告知，他们不必在周六上班，但周日可能会开会。参议院将对提名进行投票。

9000亿美元的一揽子计划出台之际，这场流行病正在带来迄今为止最可怕的激增，每天造成3000多名受害者死亡，并给国家卫生保健系统带来压力。虽然疫苗在路上，但大多数人几个月都不会得到它们。申请失业救济的人数正在上升。

新协议将向企业提供超过3000亿美元的援助，并向失业者提供每周300美元的联邦失业救济金和延长州福利，否则这些福利将在圣诞节后到期。它还包括直接支付给个人的600美元;疫苗分发基金和钱给租房者，学校，邮政服务和需要食物援助的人。

周五，民主党人在一个关键障碍上摇摆不定:保守派参议员帕特·图梅的一项规定。这将关闭根据3月份的一项救助法案建立的超过4000亿美元的潜在美联储贷款权力。财政部长史蒂文·姆努钦(Steven Mnuchin)将在12月底关闭这些项目，但图梅的措辞更进一步，禁止美联储明年重启贷款，民主党人表示，这项规定将束缚拜登的手脚，使经济处于风险之中。

拜登的经济顾问布赖恩·迪斯(Brian Deese)表示:“在我们经历前所未有的经济危机之际，保持美联储快速而有力的反应能力符合美国人民的利益。”“削弱这种权威可能意味着减少对普通企业的贷款，提高失业率，加大全国的经济痛苦。”

美联储发行的计划向中小企业提供贷款，并购买州和地方政府债券，使这些政府在财政受到疫情压力的时候更容易借款。

美联储需要财政部的支持来重启这些项目，拜登的财政部长提名人、前美联储主席珍妮特·耶伦(Janet Yellen)可能会提供支持。财政部还可以在没有国会批准的情况下提供资金支持这些项目，并可以放宽贷款要求。这可能会鼓励该计划下的更多贷款，迄今为止，这些贷款的用途有限。

谈判在周四的大部分时间里停滞不前，周五以乐观的语气开始。

这项悬而未决的法案是自里程碑式的《关爱法案》(CARES Act)于3月份几乎一致通过以来，针对这一流行病的首次重大立法回应，该法案提供了1.8万亿美元的援助，更慷慨的每周600美元的失业奖金和1200美元的个人直接付款。

新冠肺炎一揽子计划将被加入到1.4万亿美元的政府拨款法案中，该法案将在明年9月之前为联邦机构提供资金。这项措施可能为特朗普的美墨边境墙提供最后14亿美元的分期付款，作为赢得他签名的条件。

对共和党人来说，最重要的新冠肺炎援助条款是长期寻求的第二轮“工资保护”付款，以特别是受重创的企业，并为长期失业者延长即将到期的州失业福利。

民主党人被剥夺了对州和地方政府的财政救济，这是重中之重，他们赢得了新冠肺炎补充失业救济，其规模仅为《关心法案》的一半。民主党人还赢得了250亿美元来帮助苦苦挣扎的租房者支付费用，以及450亿美元用于航空和运输系统，但一些左翼批评者表示，民主党谈判者正在被击败。

事实上，自从11月参议院共和党人的表现超出预期，而众议院民主党人几乎没有占据多数以来，麦康奈尔一直处于劣势。选举前民主党对超过2万亿美元的法案的要求很快被削减了一半以上。尽管如此，拜登仍在敦促达成协议，担心疲软的经济将在就职日等待他。

拜登承诺明年将推出另一项法案，但如果民主党在下个月的佐治亚州参议院决选中失败，无法赢得参议院多数席位，他们可能就没有什么影响力了。

包括美联储(Federal Reserve)主席杰罗姆·鲍威尔(Jerome Powell)在内的大多数经济学家都强烈支持必要的额外经济刺激措施，以维持企业和家庭度过普遍预期的严冬。许多人预测，如果没有更多的帮助，2021年前三个月的经济可能会萎缩。标准普尔在周二的一份报告中表示，如果没有更多的援助，2021年的经济将会萎缩1.5个百分点。

Congress averts shutdown; fight continues over pandemic aid

WASHINGTON -- Congress passed a two-day stopgap spending bill Friday night, averting a partialgovernment shutdownand buying yet more time for frustratingly slow endgame negotiations on an almost $1 trillion COVID-19 economic relief package.

The virus aid talks remained on track, both sides said, but closing out final disagreements was proving difficult. Weekend sessions were on tap, and House leaders hoped for a vote on Sunday on the massive package, which wraps much of Capitol Hill's unfinished 2020 business into a take-it-or-leave-it behemoth that promises to be a foot thick — or more.

The House passed the temporary funding bill by a 320-60 vote. The Senate approved it by voice vote almost immediately afterward, and President Donald Trump signed it late Friday.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said both sides remain intent on closing the deal, even as Democrats launched a concerted campaign to block an effort by Republicans to rein in emergency Federal Reserve lending powers. The Democrats said the GOP proposal would deprive President-elect Joe Biden of crucial tools to manage the economy.

Negotiations continued into Friday night but an agreement wasn't likely before Saturday, lawmakers and aides said. House lawmakers were told they wouldn’t have to report to work on Saturday but that a Sunday session was likely. The Senate will be voting on nominations.

The $900 billion package comes as the pandemic is delivering its most fearsome surge yet, killing more than 3,000 victims per day and straining the nation's health care system. While vaccines are on the way, most people won't get them for months. Jobless claims are on the rise.

The emerging agreement would deliver more than $300 billion in aid to businesses and provide the jobless a $300-per-week bonus federal unemployment benefit and renewal of state benefits that would otherwise expire right after Christmas. It also includes $600 direct payments to individuals; vaccine distribution funds and money for renters, schools, the Postal Service and people needing food aid.

Democrats on Friday came out swinging at a key obstacle: a provision by conservative Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., that would close down more than $400 billion in potential Federal Reserve lending powers established under a relief bill in March. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin is shutting down the programs at the end of December, but Toomey's language goes further, by barring the Fed from restarting the lending next year, and Democrats say the provision would tie Biden's hands and put the economy at risk.

“As we navigate through an unprecedented economic crisis, it is in the interests of the American people to maintain the Fed’s ability to respond quickly and forcefully," said Biden economic adviser Brian Deese. “Undermining that authority could mean less lending to Main Street businesses, higher unemployment and greater economic pain across the nation."

The Fed programs at issue provided loans to small and mid-sized businesses and bought state and local government bonds, making it easier for those governments to borrow, at a time when their finances are under pressure from the pandemic.

The Fed would need the support of the Treasury Department to restart the programs, which Biden’s Treasury secretary nominee, Janet Yellen, a former Fed chair, would likely provide. Treasury could also provide funds to backstop those programs without congressional approval and could ease the lending requirements. That could encourage more lending under the programs, which have seen only limited use so far.

Friday opened on an optimistic note after the talks appeared stalled for much of Thursday.

The pending bill is the first significant legislative response to the pandemic since the landmark CARES Act passed virtually unanimously in March, delivering $1.8 trillion in aid, more generous $600 per week bonus jobless benefits and $1,200 direct payments to individuals.

The COVID-19 package would be added to a $1.4 trillion governmentwide appropriations bill that would fund federal agencies through next September. That measure is likely to provide a last $1.4 billion installment for Trump's U.S.-Mexico border wall as a condition of winning his signature.

For Republicans, the most important COVID-19 aid provision was a long-sought second round of “paycheck protection” payments to especially hard-hit businesses and renewal of soon-to-expire state jobless benefits for the long-term unemployed.

Democrats have been denied fiscal relief for states and local governments, a top priority, and they won a supplemental COVID-19 unemployment benefit that was only half the size of what the CARES Act delivered. Democrats also won $25 billion to help struggling renters with their payments and $45 billion for airlines and transit systems, but some critics on the left said Democratic negotiators were getting outmaneuvered.

Indeed, McConnell has been in the catbird's seat since Senate Republicans outperformed expectations in November while House Democrats barely held their majority. Preelection Democratic demands for a bill exceeding $2 trillion were quickly cut by more than half. Still, Biden is pressing for an agreement, fearing a weakening economy will await him on Inauguration Day.

Biden is promising another bill next year, but if Democrats lose Georgia Senate runoff elections next month and fail to win the Senate majority, they may have little leverage.

Most economists, including Federal Reserve Board Chairman Jerome Powell, strongly support additional economic stimulus as necessary to keep businesses and households afloat through what is widely anticipated to be a tough winter. Many forecast the economy could shrink in the first three months of 2021 without more help. Standard & Poor’s said in a report Tuesday that the economy would be 1.5 percentage points smaller in 2021 without more aid.

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AP Economics Writer Christopher Rugaber contributed.