Washington (CNN) – The United States Senate passed a budget resolution Friday morning, a key step in the process, which reaffirms the Democrats’ ability to weather President Joe Biden’s extensive Covid-19 aid package without the threat of obstruction from Republicans opposing be him.
The measure passed 51-50 in a vote that showed each party’s line, but only after Vice President Kamala Harris showed up on Capitol Hill to break the tie.
The approval followed hours of voting on amendments in a grueling ritual known as a “branch vote,” where senators can theoretically offer as many amendments to the budget resolution as they want. Those amendments go a long way in forcing each side to force the other to take up controversial issues, and most Republican amendments were rejected.
But the process also revealed a certain two-part consensus. One of the major amendments came from a bipartisan group of senators, led by Democratic Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Republican Senator Susan Collins of Maine, who would prevent “high-income taxpayers” from qualifying for $ 1,400 covid support checks. While the amendment was passed by 99-1, it is not binding and does not imply that the eligibility requirements will be changed in the final Covid Aid Act. But it expresses a broad consensus to make the changes.
In a closely scrutinized matter, Republican Senator Joni Ernst from Iowa offered an amendment to prevent the minimum wage from rising to $ 15 an hour during a pandemic. Democrats want to include a $ 15 minimum wage in the covid support law, but their move could have been tricky for centrist members like Manchin, who is in a different position from most of his group, and supports a more modest increase in the minimum. salary.
But before a roll-call vote was taken, Senator Bernie Sanders, Vermont’s independent chairman of the Budgets Committee and an advocate of the $ 15 minimum wage, weighed in and said his proposal would make the jump to $ 15. years, not immediately as Ernst had formulated in his amendment. His amendment was thus quickly passed unanimously.
An amendment by Arkansas Republican Senator Tom Cotton against the expansion of the Supreme Court, a practice advocated by some progressives to counter the conservative majority of the court, was defeated by 50-50 votes.
What’s next for the incentive plan?
The budget resolution adopted is not the covid aid law. It simply sets the stage for Democrats to use a process known as “budget reconciliation” to pass the aid bill in a vote, possibly in late February or March, after the impeachment of former President Donald Trump is in the Senate. completed.
The budget resolution included reconciliation instructions for multiple congressional committees to write and formally approve legislation on such things as funding for vaccine production and distribution, unemployment insurance, incentives and more.
Earlier this week, the House of Representatives already approved the budget measure. But because it has been amended in the Senate, it will have to return to the House for a final vote, possibly on Friday.
Biden has said he is willing to move forward without the support of Republicans, but has also stressed that he is willing to make certain concessions if he receives bipartisan support.
Congressional Democrats have also made it clear that they believe time is of the essence in the proposal, and a deep divergence remains between Biden’s $ 1.9 trillion Republican proposal and the $ 618 billion Republican proposal.
The counter-proposal still includes $ 160 billion to combat the pandemic, but Republican senators want to send out smaller, more targeted aid checks and only extend unemployment benefits until June, not September.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki reiterated during a briefing this week that there are certain “bottom lines” that Biden wants to include in the next round of Covid-19 aid, such as direct payments reaching more Americans than the Republican proposal. would include.
“He believes that at this point in our country, when one in seven American families doesn’t have enough food, we need to make sure people get the help they need and don’t get left behind,” Psaki said. And he added that the administration believes the risk is “not too great, it’s too small”.
Reconciliation has been used many times by both sides to pass controversial legislation over minority party objections, including then President Barack Obama’s law on affordable care in 2010 and Trump’s tax cuts in 2017.
However, the Republicans are not happy that Democrats are resorting to the aggressive tactic, arguing that it will set a partisan tone for the rest of Biden’s presidency and that he is not acting as the political unit he promised to be.
The 10 Senate Republicans who met with the president to discuss his aid package urged the talks to continue and sent a letter to the White House on Thursday that was obtained by CNN.
“We remain committed to working on two sides and we hope that our views will be taken into account as the legislative process progresses,” said the group led by Senator Susan Collins of Maine.
CNN’s Lauren Fox, Phil Mattingly and Morgan Rimmer contributed to this report.