Democrats in the Senate advanced a $1.9 trillion Covid relief bill on March 4, making adjustments to student loans and infrastructure, the Wall Street Journal reported.
All 50 Democratic senators advanced the bill on a procedural vote, while all 50 Republicans opposed it. Vice President Kamala Harris broke the tie in the Democrats’ favor.
Republicans cannot block the Democrats from passing the legislation in its entirety. They have expressed major concern over the bill and are planning to drag out its timeline. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) forced Senate staff to read the 628-page bill aloud, an action that is expected to take hours.
If passed, the legislation would send a $1,400 stimulus check to many Americans and provide $350 billion to state and local governments to aid in measures including vaccine distribution and expansion of child tax credit.
The bill was passed last week in the House of Representatives. With new modifications made to it this week, Americans making less than $75,000 and married couples making less than $150,000 will still receive a full $1,400 stimulus payment. However, the size of the payment will shrink quickly for people with higher incomes.
Republicans frequently attacked the legislation after its advancement. “This has nothing to do with the economy. This has everything to do with just throwing a whole big pile of money at fiscally irresponsible states,” said Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA).
For the Democrats, it is a way to help Americans gain back what they have lost from COVID-19. “There is enormous support for these provisions on both sides of the aisle in the country,” said Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), chairman of the Senate Finance Committee.
Senators on both sides agreed to set aside $8.5 billion for rural healthcare providers and $10 billion of the state and local aid in the bill for infrastructure projects.
On March 5, Democrats struck a deal to lower federal jobless benefits to $300 from the $400 originally passed in the House. The Democrats will also remove a rule that would raise the federal minimum wage to $15 after the nonpartisan parliamentarian last week said it could not be included in the relief bill.
Some centrist Democrats proposed that the bill include aid for rural broadband infrastructure, though this was too specific. The Federal Communications Commission will soon offer underprivileged households credit on broadband costs.
The $1.9 trillion bill is one piece of a multi-pronged approach U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration has taken since January to kick the U.S. back into gear after COVID-19 wiped out millions of jobs and constrained people into work-at-home environments.
Work requirements mandated for beneficiaries to receive Medicaid benefits were rolled back on Feb. 12 after President Biden signed executive orders that reexamined Trump-era healthcare policies. The conditions, requiring that beneficiaries log at least 20 hours of work a week, commit to volunteer hours, or take educational classes, were imposed in 12 states, including Arkansas and Kentucky, under Trump administration guidelines.
At the start of February, The White House increased its weekly vaccine supply to U.S. states. Under direction from the Federal Reserve, Chairman Jerome Powell assured reporters and lawmakers on Feb. 23 that the Fed will continue its easy monetary policy to spur the economy back to life as the U.S. continues its fight against the coronavirus pandemic.
