Senate passes massive relief bill, sends to House

No Republicans vote for the $1.9 trillion package.

WASHINGTON — The Senate approved a $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief plan on Saturday, as Democrats muscled through a marathon debate — and overcame dissent from moderates within their own ranks — to move one step closer to delivering President Joe Biden his first legislative victory.

Democrats voted to adopt the bill without any Republican support after a more than 24-hour, around-the-clock session. It will now fall to the House to consider the sweeping package once again.

The Senate’s passage of the measure marked an early win for Biden and his congressional Democratic allies, who had promised in the wake of the 2020 presidential election to authorize a robust package of new coronavirus aid — including another round of one-time checks for families — as one of their first acts.

“I promised the American people help was on the way,” Biden said Saturday. “Today, I can say we’ve taken one more giant step of delivering on that promise.”

He predicted stimulus checks could go out as soon as “this month.”

But the prolonged standoff between centrists and progressives within the Democratic caucus illustrated the precarious politics of the party’s meager tiebreaking majority in the Senate, where even one holdout can upend Biden’s economic agenda.

The relief measure includes a new round of up-to $1,400 stimulus checks for millions of Americans, $350 billion for cashstrapped cities and states, $130 billion for schools, and other sizable sums for a wide array of programs including food assistance, rental relief and coronavirus vaccine distribution. The bill also authorizes an additional $300-per-week in unemployment payments until early September, trimming the amount that House Democrats initially had approved earlier in the month.

The scope and duration of the jobless aid at one point appeared to imperil Democrats’ legislation: The Senate fell into a nine-hour standoff that stretched into late Friday night as one of the party’s most influential moderates, Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., demanded significant changes to scale back the benefits.

Once resolved, though, Democrats largely banded together to jettison dozens of Republican amendments that would have dramatically slashed spending or struck funds set aside for transit systems and local governments. The relief plan generally remained intact as it cleared the chamber on a 50-49 vote.