Related video: Joe Biden joins roundtable on American Rescue Plan
Joe Biden delivered his first primetime address to the nation after signing the $1.9trn Covid relief bill into law, assuring Americans that "help is here".
In his first televised address during prime-time - a rite of passage for every president - he said every American adult would be eligible to receive one of the three approved vaccines against the disease by 1 May.
His administration will invest $650m for a Covid-19 testing and screening in schools as part of a national testing program that, in combination with full vaccinations, will return the country to "normalcy" by 4 July.
He ended the milestone speech hoping the country would come together as one people and one nation.
“I believe we can and we will. We’re seizing this moment, and history I believe will record we face and overcame one of the toughest and darkest periods in this nation’s history. Darkest we’ve ever known,” he said.
The speech came hours after signing his signature pandemic stimulus legislation. With it passing the House of Representatives a day sooner than expected, the $1,400 direct payments are expected to begin arriving by direct deposit as early as this weekend.
The so-called American Rescue Plan Act is estimated to be the second most expensive in US history, behind last March’s initial pandemic response bill, and is more than twice as expensive as the stimulus package passed by the Obama administration in 2009 in response to the Great Recession.
The signing comes ahead of the president's first national primetime TV address on Thursday evening, in which he is expected to discuss the administration’s efforts to kickstart the economy.
It comes amid news Ex-president Donald Trump could be indicted within “a matter of days”, according to Watergate-era White House counsel John Dean, commenting in response to reports that the ex-president’s estranged former lawyer Michael Cohen has met with the Manhattan district attorney's office for a number of interviews in recent days.
