Senate OKs $1.9T virus package
Amended bill heads back to House for approval
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 all night on a mountain of amendments — nearly all from Republicans and nearly all rejected — blearyeyed 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 whisk it to Mr. Biden for his signature.
The huge package — its total spending is nearly one-tenth the size of the entire U.S. economy — is Mr. 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.
“This nation has suffered too much for much too long,” Mr. Biden told reporters at the White House after the vote, “and everything in this package is designed to relieve the suffering and to meet the most urgent needs of the nation and put us in a better position to prevail.”
Saturday’s vote was also a crucial political moment for Mr. Bidenand 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 slim 10-vote House edge.
Not a single Republican backed the bill in the Senate or when it initially passed the House, underscoring the barbed
partisan environment that’s so far characterizing the early days of Mr. Biden’s presidency.
Republican Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania railed against the bill.
“$45 billion expansion of Obamacare, including new subsidies for people with six figure in comes. $270 million to the National Endowments of the Arts and Humanities. This isn’t about COVID relief. It’s about using a health crisis as an excuse to ram through a left wing wishlist,” Mr. Toomey tweeted Saturday morning, a couple of hours beforethe Senate voted.
But Pennsylvania Sen. Bob Casey, a Democrat, said approval of the legislation means the country “is one step closer to putting the virus behind us.”
“When the House passes the American Rescue Plan and sends it to President Biden’s desk, we will put more money in the pockets of working families, help our children return to school safely and ensure everyone who wants to can be vaccinated,” Mr. Casey said.
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, DCalif., 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.
In a significant sign, the chair the Congressional Progressive Caucus, representing around 100 House liberals, called the Senate’s weakening of some provisions “bad policy and bad politics” but called them “relatively minor concessions.” Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., said the bill retained its “core bold, progressive elements.”
“They feel like we do, we have to get this done,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said of the House. He said he had spoken to Ms. Pelosi about the Senate’s changes and added, “It’s not going to be everything everyone wants. No bill is.”
In a written statement, Ms. Pelosi invited Republicans “to join us in recognition of the devastating reality of this vicious virus and economic crisis and of the need for decisive action.”
The bill provides direct payments of up to $1,400 for most Americans and extended emergency unemployment benefits. There are vast piles of spending for COVID-19 vaccines and testing, states and cities, and schools and ailing industries, along with tax breaks to help lower-earning people, families with children and consumers buying health insurance.
Republicans call the measure a wasteful spending spree for Democrats’ liberal allies that ignores recent indications that the pandemic and 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.”
Democrats disagreed, arguing that millions of working Americans need help as soon as possible.
The Senate commenced a dreaded “vote-a-thon” — a continuous series of votes on amendments — shortly before midnight Friday, and by its end around noon Saturday, they had dispensed with about three dozen. The Senate had been in session since for 27 hours.
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.
Sen. Dan Sullivan, RAlaska, missed the votes to attend his father-in-law’s funeral.
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 Sept. 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.