Politics
Senate Paves Way for Biden’s $1.9T Covid Package, Supports Targeted Checks to Americans
During the 15 hour overnight “vote-a-rama” in the senate, many amendments were both agreed upon and shot down.
During an over night session lasting well into Friday morning, the Senate passed a budget bill paving the way for President Joe Biden’s proposed $1.9 trillion Covid relief package, with Vice President Kamala Harris casting a tie breaking vote on the measure.
The budget resolution passed with a 51-50 vote and could face a vote in the House as early as Friday, reports the Washington Post.
With the budget resolution nearly complete, Congress can turn in earnest to writing Biden’s expansive pandemic relief proposal into law — and push it through the Senate, without Republican votes if necessary, under the special rules unlocked by the budget legislation. That process will take weeks, with Democrats eyeing mid-March as the deadline for final passage of the relief legislation because that is when enhanced unemployment benefits will expire if Congress doesn’t act first. – WaPo
During the 15 hour overnight “vote-a-rama,” many amendments were both agreed upon and shot down.
A bi-partisan show of support in a 99-1 vote pushed through an amendment brought forward by Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va), and Susan Collins, (R-ME), discounting “upper-income taxpayers” from eligibility for the direct cash payments.
“The question before us is quite simple. Do we want stimulus checks to go to households with family incomes of $300,000?” Collins asked during the session. “Or do we want to target the assistance to struggling families who need the help and provide a boost for the economy?”
“I don’t think a single person on this floor would disagree to target the relief to our neighbors who are struggling,” Manchin said. “There are other families who have not missed a single paycheck as a result of this pandemic. It does not make sense to send a check to those individuals.”
The amendment lays out no specifics levels to who is eligible for the checks but leaves the door open for lawmakers to bring the requirements down to levels that will only target low-income earners and households.
Sen. Bernie Sanders, (I-VT) would agree with discounting those making over $300,000 in the targeted payments but urged his colleagues to keep the threshold in-line with previous relief measures.
“I do not oppose this amendment. I do not think anybody here wants to see people who make $300,000 get direct payments,” Sanders said. “Let’s make certain that people who are making $75,000 per year or less do get their payments and couples making $150,000 or less do get their payments.”
Kentucky Senator Rand Paul was the only nay on the amendment.
Eight Democrats would join 50 Republicans in support of an amendment that would prohibit the government from sending stimulus checks to those in the country illegally.
During the final rounds of voting Vice President Kamala Harris casted 3 tie breaking votes that shot down three earlier efforts including using the corona virus relief package to back a Canada-to-United States oil pipeline and support hydraulic fracking for oil and gas.
As WaPo notes, while the budget bill creates the next steps for Democrats to ram through Biden’s nearly $2 trillion package, that vote may not come until early March when congress would be under pressure to act as extended unemployment payments to Americans are due to run out.
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