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Biden,
Dems
prevail
as
Senate
OKs
$1.9T
virus
relief
bill
By
ALAN
FRAM
apnews.com
WASHINGTON
- An
exhausted
Senate
narrowly
approved
a $1.9
trillion
COVID-19
relief
bill
Saturday
as
President
Joe
Biden
and his
Democratic
allies
notched
a
victory
they
called
crucial
for
hoisting
the
country
out of
the
pandemic
and
economic
doldrums.
After
laboring
through
the
night on
a
mountain
of
amendments
— nearly
all from
Republicans
and
rejected
—
bleary-eyed
senators
approved
the
sprawling
package
on a
50-49
party-line
vote.
That
sets up
final
congressional
approval
by the
House
next
week so
lawmakers
can send
it to
Biden
for his
signature.
“We
tell the
American
people,
help is
on the
way,”
said
Senate
Majority
Leader
Chuck
Schumer,
D-N.Y.
Citing
the
country’s
desire
to
resume
normalcy,
he
added,
“Our job
right
now is
to help
our
country
get from
this
stormy
present
to that
hopeful
future.”
The
huge
package
— its
total
spending
is
nearly
one-tenth
the size
of the
entire
U.S.
economy
— is
Biden’s
biggest
early
priority.
It
stands
as his
formula
for
addressing
the
deadly
virus
and a
limping
economy,
twin
crises
that
have
afflicted
the
country
for a
year.
Saturday’s
vote was
also a
crucial
political
moment
for
Biden
and
Democrats,
who need
nothing
short of
party
unanimity
in a
50-50
Senate
they run
because
of Vice
President
Kamala
Harris’
tiebreaking
vote.
They
also
have a a
slim
10-vote
edge in
the
House.
On
Saturday,
Sen. Dan
Sullivan,
R-Alaska,
was
absent
for the
vote.
A
small
but
pivotal
band of
moderate
Democrats
leveraged
changes
in the
bill
that
incensed
progressives,
not
making
it any
easier
for
Speaker
Nancy
Pelosi,
D-Calif.,
to guide
the
measure
through
the
House.
But
rejection
of their
first,
signature
bill was
not an
option
for
Democrats,
who face
two
years of
trying
to run
Congress
with
virtually
no room
for
error.
The
bill
provides
direct
payments
of up to
$1,400
for most
Americans,
extended
emergency
unemployment
benefits,
and vast
piles of
spending
for
COVID-19
vaccines
and
testing,
states
and
cities,
schools
and
ailing
industries,
along
with tax
breaks
to help
lower-earning
people,
families
with
children
and
consumers
buying
health
insurance.
The
package
faced
solid
opposition
from
Republicans,
who call
the
package
a
wasteful
spending
spree
for
Democrats’
liberal
allies
that
ignores
recent
indications
that the
pandemic
and the
economy
could be
turning
the
corner.
“The
Senate
has
never
spent $2
trillion
in a
more
haphazard
way,”
said
Senate
Minority
Leader
Mitch
McConnell,
R-Ky. Of
Democrats,
he said,
“Their
top
priority
wasn’t
pandemic
relief.
It was
their
Washington
wish
list.”
The
Senate
commenced
a
dreaded
“vote-a-thon”
— a
continuous
series
of votes
on
amendments
—
shortly
before
midnight
Friday,
and by
the end
had
dispensed
with
about
three
dozen.
The
Senate
had been
in
session
since 9
a.m. EST
Friday.
Overnight,
the
chamber
was like
an
experiment
in the
best
techniques
for
staying
awake.
Several
lawmakers
appeared
to rest
their
eyes or
doze at
their
desks,
often
burying
their
faces in
their
hands.
At one
point,
Sen.
Brian
Schatz,
D-Hawaii,
at 48
one of
the
younger
senators,
trotted
into the
chamber
and did
a
prolonged
stretch.
The
measure
follows
five
earlier
ones
totaling
about $4
trillion
that
Congress
has
enacted
since
last
spring
and
comes
amid
signs of
a
potential
turnaround.
Vaccine
supplies
are
growing,
deaths
and
caseloads
have
eased
but
remain
frighteningly
high,
and
hiring
was
surprisingly
strong
last
month,
though
the
economy
remains
10
million
jobs
smaller
than its
pre-pandemic
levels.
The
Senate
package
was
delayed
repeatedly
as
Democrats
made
eleventh-hour
changes
aimed at
balancing
demands
by their
competing
moderate
and
progressive
factions.
Work
on the
bill
ground
to a
halt
Friday
after an
agreement
among
Democrats
on
extending
emergency
jobless
benefits
seemed
to
collapse.
Nearly
12 hours
later,
top
Democrats
and West
Virginia
Sen. Joe
Manchin,
perhaps
the
chamber’s
most
conservative
Democrat,
said
they had
a deal
and the
Senate
approved
it on a
party-line
50-49
vote.
Under
their
compromise,
$300
weekly
emergency
unemployment
checks —
on top
of
regular
state
benefits
— would
be
renewed,
with a
final
payment
made
Oct. 6.
There
would
also be
tax
breaks
on some
of those
payments,
helping
people
the
pandemic
abruptly
tossed
out of
jobs and
risked
tax
penalties
on the
benefits.
The
House’s
relief
bill,
largely
similar
to the
Senate’s,
provided
$400
weekly
benefits
through
August.
The
current
$300 per
week
payments
expire
March
14, and
Democrats
want the
bill on
Biden’s
desk by
then to
avert a
lapse.
Manchin
and
Republicans
have
asserted
that
higher
jobless
benefits
discourage
people
from
returning
to work,
a
rationale
most
Democrats
and many
economists
reject.
That
agreement
on
jobless
benefits
wasn’t
the only
move
that
showed
the sway
of
moderates.
The
Senate
voted
Friday
to eject
a
House-approved
boost in
the
federal
minimum
wage to
$15 an
hour by
2025, a
major
defeat
for
progressives.
Eight
Democrats
opposed
the
increase,
suggesting
that
Sen.
Bernie
Sanders,
I-Vt.,
and
other
progressives
pledging
to
continue
the
effort
in
coming
months
will
face a
difficult
fight.
Party
leaders
also
agreed
to
restrict
eligibility
for the
$1,400
stimulus
checks
that
will go
to most
Americans.
That
amount
would be
gradually
reduced
until,
under
the
Senate
bill, it
reaches
zero for
people
earning
$80,000
and
couples
making
$160,000.
Those
amounts
were
higher
in the
House
version.
Many
of the
rejected
GOP
amendments
were
either
attempts
to force
Democrats
to cast
politically
awkward
votes or
for
Republicans
to
demonstrate
their
zeal for
issues
that
appeal
to their
voters.
These
included
defeated
efforts
to bar
the
bill’s
education
funds
from
going to
schools
closed
for the
pandemic
that
don’t
reopen
their
doors,
or that
let
transgender
students
born
male to
participate
in
female
sports.
One
amendment
would
have
blocked
aid to
so-called
sanctuary
cities,
where
local
authorities
balk at
helping
federal
officials
round up
immigrants
who are
in the
U.S.
illegally.
Friday’s
gridlock
over
unemployment
benefits
gridlock
wasn’t
the
bill’s
lengthy
delay. A
day
earlier,
Sen. Ron
Johnson,
R-Wis.,
forced
the
chamber’s
clerks
to read
aloud
the
entire
628-page
relief
bill, a
wearying
task
that
lasted
nearly
11
hours.
___
Associated
Press
writers
Lisa
Mascaro
and
Kevin
Freking
contributed
to this
report.
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