The House was scheduled to begin voting around noon on a mountain of amendments, mostly by Republican Party opponents and virtually all destined to be rejected. This would put the Senate on the road to approving its reworked version of the massive measure, probably over the weekend, and send it back to the House so it could bring the final package to Biden for its approval. signature.
Moments after the Senate passed legislation Thursday, Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., Forced House secretaries to read aloud the entire 628-page measure. The grueling task lasted 10 hours and 44 minutes for employees and ended shortly after 2 a.m. EST, with Johnson sitting alternately at his desk and strolling around the mostly empty room.
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Democratic leaders made more than a dozen late additions to their package Thursday. This reflected his need to consolidate the unanimous support of all his senators, in addition to the tiebreaker vote of Vice President Kamala Harris, to succeed in the 50-50 split chamber.
The Senate’s 51-50 votes to begin debating the package, with Harris pushing Democrats over, underscored how they navigated the package through Congress with virtually no margin for error. In the House, their majority is just 10 votes.
The bill, aimed at fighting the killer virus and restoring the health of the tiered economy, will provide direct payments of up to $ 1,400 to most Americans. There is also money for COVID-19 vaccines and testing, aid to state and local governments, aid for schools and the airline industry, tax credits for low-income people and families with children, and health insurance grants. .
“We won’t be shy in the face of a big challenge,” said Chuck Schumer, Senate Majority Leader, DN.Y.
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The new provisions offer attractive elements for all kinds of Democrats. Progressives earned money to boost food programs, federal subsidies for health care for losing workers, tax-free student loans, and money for public broadcasting and consumer protection research.
Moderates earned funds for rural health care, language ensured minimum amounts of money for smaller states, and a ban on states receiving aid using discounts to reduce taxes. And for everyone there was money for infrastructure, cultural spaces, start-ups and after-school programs.
Even with the late revisions, there was a good chance that lawmakers would make another one and vote to reduce weekly emergency unemployment benefits from $ 400 to $ 300.
This potential change could also extend these emergency payments one more month, through September. He was described by helpers and a pressure group who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe internal conversations.
Biden and Senate leaders had agreed on Wednesday to withhold weekly $ 400 unemployment payments included in the House Relief Bill version passed by the House on Saturday. The reduction to $ 300, which seemed likely to happen once the Senate begins voting-a-branch on dozens of amendments later this week, seemed to reflect the need to secure the support of moderate Democrats.
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He also left the Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, D-California, to keep on board the numerous progressives in his House. The Liberals were already suffering a severe blow when their No. 1 priority, raising the federal minimum wage to $ 15 an hour included in the House package, was ripped from the Senate bill to violate House rules and for lack of support from moderates.
In another negotiation that satisfied the moderates, Biden and Senate Democrats agreed Wednesday to tighten requirements for direct checks on people. The new provision completely eliminates payments of $ 1,400 for people earning at least $ 80,000 and couples earning $ 160,000, well below the original ceilings.
“My hope is they don’t get too hooked,” Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., Said about the Senate in an interview. “If they do, there could be some problems.”
Congress wants to send the bill to Biden before March 14, when a preliminary round of emergency benefits for people expelled from the pandemic expires.
Johnson told reporters he was forcing the reading of the bill to “shed light on this abusive and obscene amount of money.” Schumer said Johnson “would get little more than a few discomforts in his throat for Senate secretaries.”
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Asked about GOP delays, Biden told reporters he had spoken to Republican lawmakers and added, “We’re informing everyone.” Biden met last month with Republican senators who offered a plan one-third the size of the Democrats’ proposal and there have been no signs since serious talks.
Johnson’s move pointed to a broader Republican Party argument: Democrats were busting a costly bill that ignored the growing number of vaccinations and other signs suggesting the country’s pandemic test is beginning to decline.
“Instead of heading for a dark tunnel, we’re speeding out,” said Mitch McConnell, Senate minority leader R-Ky.
The economic recovery began to slow in late last year as the virus increased, causing a recruitment deficit in recent months. Employers added just 49,000 jobs in January and cut 227,000 jobs in December. Economists estimate that the February employment report to be released on Friday will show gains of 175,000, not even enough to quickly recover the nearly 10 million jobs lost by the pandemic-induced recession.
The supportive Congressional Budget Office estimates that economic growth will exceed 4% this year without the Biden bailout package. Republicans cite that, as proof, the economy is heading upward, but Democrats say a strong economic stimulus is still needed to prevent a relapse.
“It’s a crisis that’s still very much between us and it’s deadly, deadly serious,” Schumer said.
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Associated Press writers Josh Boak, Alexandra Jaffe and Lisa Mascaro contributed to this report.
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