LOGJAM BROKEN! Senate Finally Passes COVID Relief Bill
GOP Tantrums About Transgender Rights While Democrats Deliver COVID Relief To The American People (politicususa.com)Dick Durbin Shuts Down Ted Cruz On The Senate Floor For Lying About The COVID Relief Bill (politicususa.com)Senators worked throughout night to reach deal in coronavirus relief package (cbsnews.com)
The Senate passed a $1.9-trillion COVID-19 relief package Saturday, scaling back unemployment benefits approved by the House and narrowing the number of Americans who receive $1,400 payments in an effort to mollify centrist Democrats and get a bill to President Biden as early as next week.
After some surprise last-minute haggling Friday between moderates and progressives, Senate Democrats passed the landmark bill Saturday morning by a vote of 50 to 49, with all Democrats voting in favor and all Republicans opposed. Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) was absent due to a death in the family.
The measure next moves back to the House, which is expected to approve the Senate changes and send the bill to the president before March 14, when some current unemployment benefits are set to expire.
Democrats voted down a swath of Republican amendments on repeated votes of 50-49 to avoid disrupting the delicate agreement between progressive and moderate senators.
Before it can be signed by Biden, the legislation will have to be passed again by the House after the Senate made changes to its version, which Democrats approved along party lines last Saturday.
Axios (as always) has the bullet points:
• Democrats approved the package through the budget reconciliation process, meaning it did not require any Republican support to pass.
• However, the reconciliation process also prevented Democrats from including a provision to increase the minimum wage to $15/hour in the legislation.
• The Senate parliamentarian ruled in February that the wage increase does not directly affect the federal government’s finances, meaning it could not be passed through reconciliation.
DEVELOPING…