5 ways the stimulus package is expected to reduce poverty

President Joe Biden's sweeping $1.9 trillion relief package represents one of the largest federal efforts to reduce poverty in the last half century.

The massive legislation, which the President is expected to sign Friday, provides aid to low-income Americans in numerous ways. Attention has focused on the third round of direct stimulus payments, but the bill also offers parents a guaranteed stream of income and gives childless workers a bigger tax break. And it will extend enhanced food stamp benefits and federal help for the unemployed, along with providing housing assistance and more generous health insurance subsidies. The package's key measures are expected to slash the poverty rate by about a third and reduce the share of children in poverty by more than half, according to estimates from both Columbia University and the Urban Institute.