The House on Friday passed the Senate-amended fiscal resolution, introducing the process of getting through President Biden’s $ 1.9 trillion COVID-19 emergency plan without the need for GOP support.
The bill passed 219-209, with one Democrat joining each Republican to vote against.
“Our work to destroy the coronavirus and provide assistance to the American people is urgent and of the highest priority,” said Speaker Nancy Pelosi
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The adoption of the budget resolution initiates a process called reconciliation, which the senate can pass by simple majority, bypassing a possible GOP filibuster. The resolution provides instructions for Congressional authorizing committees to write legislation affecting federal finances.
Those instructions followed the outline of Biden’s proposal, which includes $ 1,400 incentive checks, comprehensive emergency unemployment benefits, funds for the distribution of vaccines and coronavirus tests, support to state and local governments, and increases in child tax credits and earned income tax credits.
Pelosi said Parliament aims to finalize the package by the end of the month.
The budget resolution came fresh from the Senate, which spent a marathon, overnight session, considering changes to the original proposal. The House of Representatives had approved an earlier version of the measure on Wednesday.
The final version, which was passed at 5:30 am after 3 pm of debate and vote, contained some strong signals from centrist Democrats that they expect changes to the proposal.
Democrats rely on the party’s unanimity and Vice President Harris’ binding vote to pass legislation in the 50-50 Senate – any Democratic “no” vote can sink a bill.
The Senate passed amendments calling for a stricter target of incentive controls and for funding to be reserved for rural hospitals. The amendments were largely non-binding, but served to indicate where Congress faced some key issues.
More controversial amendments regarding fracking, the Keystone XL pipeline and whether incentive checks would go to undocumented immigrants were dropped in a final amendment presented by Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer
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Democrats said they supported restricting incentive checks for undocumented immigrants, but argued that the language in the amendment would prevent children of citizens and undocumented immigrants from receiving the benefit, which would be a change from the previous round of assistance.
Biden has indicated that he prefers the bill to be passed with bipartisan support, but is willing to move forward with the Democrats alone, or with just a handful of GOP votes behind the 10 he would need have to pass legislation regularly.
On Monday, he spent two hours with 10 GOP senators over their $ 618 billion counter-proposal for COVID-19 aid.
Biden has consistently argued that exceeding the scope of the emergency bill is preferable to undershooting, a lesson he says was learned the hard way with Obama’s stimulus law during the Great Recession, which many economists believe was too small.
“One thing we’ve learned is that we can’t do too much here; we can do too little. We can’t do enough and sputter, ”Biden said Friday ahead of a meeting with House Democratic leaders.
Democrats will also face strict fiscal rules in the Senate that could jeopardize important aspects of their emergency relief proposal, most notably the plan to raise the minimum wage to $ 15 by 2025.
Chairman of the Senate Budgets Committee Bernie Sanders
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