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WASHINGTON: The United States Senate approved President Joe Biden’s $ 1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief plan on Saturday (March 6) in a party line vote after an all-night session which was repeatedly delayed when the Republican minority tried but failed to advance. three dozen amendments.
The plan passed on a 50-49 vote with the support of all Democrats, but not Republicans. It is one of the largest stimulus bills in American history and gives Biden his first major legislative victory since taking office in January.
The partisan victory was made possible by Democrats winning two Senate seats in Georgia’s special election in January, giving them limited control of the House.
Biden said Saturday that he hoped the House of Representatives would quickly pass the revised bill so he could sign it and begin sending direct payments of $ 1,400 to Americans.
“This plan will get the checks out the door starting this month for the American people, who so desperately need the help,” Biden said at the White House after the vote.
The final bill includes $ 400 billion in one-time payments of $ 1,400 to many Americans, with an elimination beginning for those with annual incomes greater than $ 75,000.
It also includes $ 300 a week in extended unemployment benefits for the 9.5 million people who were left without work because of the crisis.
Democrats agreed to cut those benefits from $ 400 a week to secure approval in the Senate. They want the bill to become law before current unemployment benefits expire on March 15.
About $ 350 billion in aid has also been set aside for state and local governments that have seen the pandemic put a dent in their budgets.
SENATE FIST BUMPS
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said on Twitter that the House will vote Tuesday on the bill passed by the Senate.
Democrats erupted in applause amid the passage of the bill in the Senate on Saturday and Liberal Independent Senator Bernie Sanders slapped Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.
Schumer said the bill would help the country take advantage against a pandemic that has killed more than 520,000 people across the United States and changed most aspects of daily life.
READ: ‘Neanderthal thinking’: Biden criticizes decisions to end COVID-19 mask mandates
“I want the American people to know that we are going to get through this and that someday soon our businesses will reopen, our economy will reopen and life will reopen,” Schumer said.
However, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell had harsh words on the measure. “The Senate has never spent $ 2 trillion in a more disorderly or less rigorous process,” he said.
Republicans had sought a new round of aid roughly a third the size of Biden’s plan.
McConnell argued that even without this legislation, “2021 will already be our year back” due to relief bills enacted last year.
The move comes as a growing number of states have relaxed restrictions designed to curb the pandemic.
READ: Fauci urges Americans to receive any of the 3 available COVID-19 vaccines
Earlier this week, Texas allowed most of the companies to operate at full capacity, and California said it would soon allow Disneyland and other theme parks, as well as sports stadiums, to reopen with limited capacity.
But even as more and more Americans get vaccinated against COVID-19, top infectious disease official Dr. Anthony Fauci has said “now is not the time to back down.”
TWELVE HOUR STANDOFF
Disagreements among Democrats over unemployment benefits and an all-night effort by Republicans to amend a bill that polls show is popular with voters illustrated the difficulty Biden will face pushing other policies through. of a Senate that Democrats control by the narrower majority.
The chamber set a record for its longest single vote in the modern era, 11 hours and 50 minutes, when Democrats negotiated a compromise on unemployment benefits to satisfy centrists like Sen. Joe Manchin, who walks the tightrope. as a Democrat representing West Virginia, who backed former Republican President Donald Trump in the November election.
Extended unemployment payments, which will be paid in addition to state unemployment benefits, proved to be the most contentious part of the bill. The House bill had set the fringe benefit at $ 400 a week, but Senate Democrats eventually agreed to lower it to $ 300.
The House bill also included a measure for more than double the minimum wage at $ 15 an hour, which the Senate rejected.
Moderate Democrats had feared that higher unemployment benefits and a higher minimum wage would overheat the economy and hurt businesses in rural states.
READ: What will the economic recovery of the United States be like?
When asked if the changes would frustrate some Democrats who propelled him to office in the November election, Biden said: “They are not frustrated. As Senator Sanders said, this is the most progressive bill since he’s been here.”
Senate Democrats used a process called reconciliation to pass the measure with a simple majority instead of the 60 out of 100 votes normally required under House rules.
It was unclear whether Democrats will try to use that maneuver on other political targets, such as legislation dealing with climate change and immigration.
A Republican, Dan Sullivan of Alaska, left Washington on Friday night for a family funeral, meaning Democrats didn’t need Vice President Kamala Harris’s runoff vote in the normally 50-50 chamber.
Republicans widely supported previous stimulus packages to fight the virus and jumpstart the economy. But with Democrats in charge of the White House and both houses of Congress, they criticized this bill for being too expensive.
The country has yet to replace 9.5 million jobs lost since last year, and the White House says it could take years to do so.
Washington got unexpected good news on Friday after data showed US employment skyrocketing in February, adding 379,000 jobs, significantly more than many economists expected.
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