Maine Representative Jared Golden was the only Democrat to vote no.
This is a last minute update. An earlier version of this report is shown below.
President Joe Biden presented the case on Friday to move quickly and without Republicans, if necessary, spending $ 1.9 trillion on coronavirus relief, armed with new signs of economic tension caused by the ongoing pandemic.
Betting on the county and economy widened Friday morning, shortly after Senate Democrats cast a decisive vote to push the plan through the House without Republican support, a step toward final approval. next month. The January job report showed that recruitment had stalled at a rate that could make it difficult to return to full employment for several years, with 406,000 people choosing to leave the workforce as deaths increased the pandemic.
“A lot of people lose hope,” Biden said in a speech at the White House. “I think the American people are looking for help from their government right now, to do our job and not let them down. So I will act. I will act quickly. I would like to be doing it with the support of Republicans … just they are not willing to go as far as I think we should go. “
The speech consolidated the change of a president who entered the White House compromising bipartisanship and met Monday with 10 Republican senators who proposed a reduced $ 618 billion alternative. But Biden concluded in his Friday speech that helping him at that level would only prolong the economic pain.
His statements came several hours after the Senate passed a budget measure that would allow Democrats to approve the plan without Republicans. Vice President Kamala Harris cast her first vote in the Senate.
Senate Democrats applauded after Harris announced the 51-50 vote around 5:30 p.m. The action came after a grueling all-night session, where senators voted on amendments that could define the outlines of the eventual COVID-19 aid bill.
Now the budget goes back to the House, where it will likely be re-approved on Friday to reflect the changes made by the Senate. The measure could pave the way for committees so that additional aid could end in mid-March, when additional unemployment and other pandemic aid expires. It is an aggressive timeline that will test the ability of the new administration and Congress to deliver on the results.
“We’ve focused like a laser on doing this,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said after Democratic leaders in the House met with Biden on Friday. “We hope to be able to put vaccines in people’s guns, money in people’s pockets, safe children in schools and workers in their jobs. That’s what we’re doing now.”
The stimulus to the stimulus comes amid new signs of a weakening US economy. Employers added only 49,000 jobs in January, after cutting 227,000 jobs in December, the Labor Department said Friday. Restaurants, retailers, manufacturers and even the healthcare sector laid off workers last month, meaning private employers made a meager gain of 6,000 jobs last month.
“At this rate, it will be ten years until we reach full employment,” Biden said at an Oval Office meeting with House Democrats. “This is not hyperbole. This is a fact.”
The unemployment rate fell from 6.7% to 6.3%, but there was a decline in the number of people working or looking for work, indicating that some people are leaving the workforce. The U.S. economy is 9.9 million jobs at its pre-pandemic level.
Biden, who has met with lawmakers in recent days to discuss the package, welcomed House committee leaders who will convene the bill under the budget process known as “reconciliation.” There is money for vaccine distribution, direct payments to households, school reopening and commercial aid.
The size of the package has been a concern for several Republican lawmakers and some economists. Larry Summers, a former Treasury secretary during the Clinton administration, said in a column for the Washington Post that the $ 1.9 trillion package was three times larger than the projected economic deficit. An independent analysis of Penn Wharton’s Budget Model found that the plan would do little to increase growth relative to its size.
The Senate marathon session brought test votes on several Democratic priorities, including a $ 15 minimum wage. The Senate voted by a vote on Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, opposed to raising the salary during the pandemic. Ernst said a pay rise at the moment would be “devastating” for small businesses.
The Senate also passed a 99-1 amendment that would prevent the $ 1,400 in direct checks from Biden’s proposal from going to “higher-income taxpayers.” But the measure, led by sensational Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Joe Manchin, West Virginia, is ultimately symbolic and non-binding and does not specify at what level a person qualifies as higher income.
And while Biden seemed willing to break with Republicans in his speech, White House press secretary Jen Psaki later told reporters that the Senate-approved reconciliation process still allows for bipartisanship.
“The process allows time for negotiations through committee work,” Psaki said. “We certainly hope there are opportunities for Republican amendments, amendments from other countries, to be part of this process.”
Associated Press writer Zeke Miller contributed to this report.
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