San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Biden presses Senate to act fast on relief bill
WASHINGTON — The House approved a $1.9 trillion pandemic relief bill that was championed by President Biden, the first step in providing another dose of aid to a weary nation as the measure now moves to a tense, divided Senate.
“We have no time to waste,” Biden said at the White House after the House passage early Saturday. “We act now — decisively, quickly and boldly — we can finally get ahead of this virus. We can finally get our economy moving again. People in this country have suffered far too much for too long.”
The president’s vision for infusing cash across a struggling economy to individuals, businesses, schools, states and cities battered by COVID19 passed on a near partyline 219212 vote. That ships the bill to the Senate, where Democrats appear bent on resuscitating their bid to boost the federal minimum wage and fights could erupt over state aid and other issues.
Democrats said mass unemployment and the halfmillion American lives lost are causes to act despite nearly $4 trillion in aid already spent fighting the fallout from the pandemic. GOP lawmakers, they said, were out of step with a public that polling finds largely views the bill favorably.
“I am a happy camper tonight,” said Rep. Maxine Waters, DLos Angeles. “This is what America needs. Republicans, you ought to be a part of this. But if you’re not, we’re going without you.”
Republicans said the bill was too expensive and that too few education dollars would be spent quickly to immediately reopen schools. They said it was laden with gifts to Democratic constituencies like labor unions and funneled money to Democraticrun 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, RBakersfield. “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.”
The overall relief bill would provide $1,400 payments to individuals, extend emergency unemployment benefits through August and increase tax credits for children and federal subsidies for health insurance.
It also provides billions for schools and colleges, state and local governments, COVID19 vaccines and testing, renters, food producers and struggling industries like airlines, restaurants, bars and concert venues.
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 whom voters will reward for heaping more federal spending to combat the coronavirus and revive the economy.
At the same time, Democrats were trying to figure out how to assuage liberals who lost their top priority in a jarring Senate setback
Thursday.
That chamber’s nonpartisan parliamentarian, Elizabeth MacDonough, said Senate rules require that a federal minimum wage increase would have to be dropped from the COVID19 bill, leaving the proposal on life support. The measure would gradually lift that minimum to $15 hourly. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, DSan Francisco, offered encouragement, calling a minimum wage increase “a financial necessity for our families, a great stimulus for our economy and a moral imperative for our country.”
Progressives are demanding that the Senate press ahead anyway on the minimum wage increase, even if it meant changing that chamber’s rules and eliminating the filibuster, a tactic that requires 60 votes for a bill to move forward.
“We’re going to have to reform the filibuster because we have to be able to deliver,” said Rep. Pramila Jayapal, DWash.
Rep. Alexandria OcasioCortez, DN.Y., another highprofile progressive, also said Senate rules must be changed, telling reporters that when Democrats meet with their constituents, “We can’t tell them that this didn’t get done because of an unelected parliamentarian.”
Traditionalists of both parties — including Biden, who served as a senator for 36 years — have opposed eliminating filibusters because they protect parties’ interests when they are in the Senate minority.