The U.S. Can’t Wait for New Covid Relief

In the months leading up to the election, U.S. lawmakers failed to agree on a new coronavirus relief plan. Now, with a lame-duck Congress and President Donald Trump moving reluctantly toward the exit, the temptation will be to do nothing until President-elect Joe Biden is in office and the new legislature is installed.

That’s too long to wait. Several provisions of the earlier CARES Act are set to end just as coronavirus cases are surging. Over the next nine weeks, the recovery’s momentum is likely to fade as economic restrictions — even if not as not as severe as those of the spring — are tightened again. Without a new and substantial round of fiscal support, jobs will be lost, households of limited means will again be hit hard, and state and city budgets will come under even greater strain. A new fiscal plan is urgently needed.