10 things you need to know today: March 28, 2020

Trump signs $2.2 trillion coronavirus stimulus bill, Trump invokes Defense Protection Act to mandate GM's ventilation production, and more

Donald Trump.
(Image credit: Erin Schaff-Pool/Getty Images)

1. Trump signs $2.2 trillion coronavirus stimulus bill

President Trump on Friday signed into law a $2.2 trillion emergency spending bill intended to help the economy recover from the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. The historic stimulus bill was passed in the House just hours earlier, after members of Congress were forced to return to Washington D.C. to overrule an objection by Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), whose opposition to a unanimous voice vote required the House to form a 216-member quorum. The bill authorizes the Treasury Department to send Americans $1,200 payments, and provides billions in small business loans. It also expands unemployment benefits and sends additional funding to hospitals in COVID-19 hotspots. There are now 100,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the U.S.; Congress has scrambled to contain the economic fallout.

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Tim O'Donnell

Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.