US$1.9 trillion Covid relief Bill passed

House’s approval spells win for Biden but debacle over minimum wage remains

WASHINGTON: The House approved a US$1.9 trillion (RM7.7 trillion) pandemic relief Bill in a win for President Joe Biden, even as top Democrats tried assuring agitated progressives that they would revive their derailed drive to boost the minimum wage.

The new president’s vision for flushing cash to individuals, businesses, states and cities battered by Covid-19 passed on a near party-line 219 to 212 vote.

That ships the massive measure to the Senate, where Democrats seem bent on resuscitating their minimum wage push and fights could erupt over state aid and other issues.

Democrats said the still-faltering economy and the half-million American lives lost demanded quick, decisive action, and GOP lawmakers were out of step with a public that polling shows largely views the Bill favourably.

“I am a happy camper tonight,” Rep Maxine Waters said.

“This is what America needs. Republicans, you ought to be a part of this. But if you’re not, we’re going without you,” she said.

Republicans said the Bill was too expensive and said too few education dollars would be spent quickly to immediately reopen schools.

They said it was laden with gifts to Democratic constituencies like labour unions and funnelled money to Democratic-run states they suggested didn’t need it because their budgets had bounced back.

“To my colleagues who say this Bill is bold, I say it’s bloated,” said House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy.

“To those who say it’s urgent, I say it’s unfocused. To those who say it’s popular, I say it is entirely partisan,” he said.

Moderate Democratic Reps Jared Golden of Maine and Kurt Schrader of Oregon were the only two lawmakers to cross party lines.

That sharp partisan divide is making the fight a showdown over who voters will reward for heaping more federal spending to combat Covid-19 and revive the economy on top of the US$4 trillion (RM16 trillion) approved last year.

The battle is also emerging as an early test of Biden’s ability to hold together his party’s fragile congressional majorities – just 10 votes in the House and an evenly divided 50-50 Senate.

At the same time, Democrats were trying to figure out how to assuage progressives who lost their top priority in a jarring Senate setback on Thursday.

Elizabeth MacDonough, the chamber’s non-partisan parliamentarian, said Senate rules require that a federal minimum wage increase would have to be dropped from the Covid-19 Bill, leaving the proposal on life support.

The proposed measure would gradually lift the hourly minimum to US$15 (RM60) by 2025, doubling the current US$7.25 (RM29) in effect since 2009.

Hoping to revive the effort in some form, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is considering adding a provision to the Senate version of the Covid-19 relief Bill that would penalise large companies that don’t pay workers at least US$15 (RM60) an hour, said a senior Democratic aide who spoke on condition of anonymity.